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HISTORY 



CITYOFRIPON, 



ASD OF ITS FOUNDER, 



david :p. mafes 



WITH HIS OPINION OF 



]Mei} kiid ]tfk-nnei^ of tlje Day. 



MILWAUKEE : 

CRAMER. AIKENS & CRAMER, PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS, 
1873. 




l^r^U 



II WO 

'a i 



TO MY FRIENDS 
IN RIPON, 

THTS BOOK IS MOBT 

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 

In writing this history of myself and of the towns I have aided in 
building, I have frequently been asked to write it out and get it into 
book form, so if there is anything iu my long life and experience worth 
keeping on the shelves of the book-case or taking down and reading, 
here it is ; and you who have had my acquaintance will see that the 
book is the Old Captain right over. I have not attempted to show the 
scholar or the statesman, but simply to give a true history of myself, 
and times as I have seen them, for I have learned that they who 
attempt to pass themselves off tor something they are not, are discov- 
ered at once by the discriminating public. 

I once heard the celebrated clergyman, Orvil Dewey, preach, in the 
city of New York, a sermon from the text "Truth,'' and he showed 
most clearly that in all our acts of life we must be truthful or the 
world would see that we had not the truth in our souls; even the mere 
child will detect the putting on of airs. So here it is as thoughts have 
come to me and I have penned them, and you, critics, take it and deal 
gently with the old man, for such now they call me, if I do feel young. 
I have written this without gloves, for I meant it should come bare- 
handed if the hand may appear. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I.— My Own History, .... 9 

CHAPTER II.— The West 29 

CHAPTER LTL— Steamboating 43 

CHAPTER IV.— Founding of Ripon, . . . 60 

CHAPTER V.— Ceresco, 83 

CHAPTER VI— First Episcopal Church— Farming, 96 
CHAPTER VIII.— My Speech at the Pioneer Festival, 132 

CHAPTER IX.— Death of My Wife, . . 160 

CHAPTER X.— Traveling for the Merchant's Associ- • 

TION, 177 

WlNNECONNE, ..... 204 

CHAPTER XL— My Opinion of Myself, . . 215 

CHAPTER XIX— Freemasonry, . . 230 

CHAPTER XIII.— Advice to Young Men, . . 233 

CHAPTER VIV.— Conclusion, .... 239 

Ripon College, . . . 243 

Dedication, .... 277 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Fkontispiece — Capt. David P. Mapes. 

Woods Hotel, . , 225 

Ripon College, ..'.... 243 



HISTORY 



CITY OF RIPON 



CHAPTER I. 

MY OWN HISTORY. 

It is difficult for a man to speak long of him. 
self without vanity or incurring the charge of 
egotism. It might be thought an instance of van- 
ity that I at all pretend to write my life ; but this 
narrative shall contain nothing set down in malice 
and not a word but facts as they have occurred 
through the life and times of the three-quarters 
of a century that I have lived. 

I was born on the 10th of January, 1798, on 
the banks of the Hudson, in the little town of 
Coxsackie, State of New York. My father and 
mother were of English oiigin, and had moved 
from Long Island, New York, and settled at that 



10 H1STOEY OF THE 

place some time before the date of my birth. My 
father at this time built a hotel, known as the 
Elm Tree House, directly under the wide-spreading 
branches of one of the most noble elms that grew 
in that region, and in the top, amongst its branches, 
he built a summer-house. It became a place of 
great resort, and those buildings are amongst my 
earliest recollections. He had also a sloop to run 
from that place to New York city, for in those 
days a steamboat had never made its appearance 
on those beautiful waters. 

My father's family consisted of four children — 
two sons and two daughters — with my brother 
the eldest and myself the youngest. My brother 
was a mute with all his faculties bright but that 
of hearing, and this made him the more endeared 
to the family; of him I shall make frequent men- 
tion through this narrative. 

This mute brother used to go with his father to 
the city, and when he returned to his home he 
had much to tell the Coxsackie boys of what he 
saw in the city of New York. He saw the city 
boys go in bathing, saw them plunge into the river 
and swim out, and as he had not yet learned to 
swim, he did not know but that he could swim as 
well as he could walk, but when he attempted to 



CITY OF RIPON. 11 

show the Coxsackie boys how it was done in New 
York, he would have been drowned had he not 
been rescued. By constant practice he soon 
learned to swim and became an expert, as he did 
in all boyish sports. He was a pet and favorite 
with the boys of the place. 

My mother died when I was about six years 
old, and my father — as most fathers do — gave to 
his children that much abused being, a step, 
mother; but I, having been left without an own 
mother, have to say, in justice to two step- 
mothers, that they were kind to me and appeared 
to love me as a child, but I could not compare 
them with my own mother, for it is little we 
recollect before six years of age. I remember 
going to the funeral of my mother, and that is 
the most I recollect about her. My sisters had 
many complaints to make against the step- 
mothers, for they (the step-mothers) had daugh- 
ters of their own that did not so well agree. The 
treatment which I received from my step-mothers 
T always ascribed to my own facility of making 
them love me, and here again is egotism. 

My father was unfortunate in his business as 
merchant, hotel keeper and sloop owner. The 
long sickness of my consumptive mother had 



12 HIST0KY OF THE 

exhausted his means, so he went into the woods 
west of Goxsackie the then great distance of seven 
miles and bought mills and commenced the lum- 
bering business. This brings me up to twelve 
years of age. I had to take charge of teams and 
draw the lumber to the Hudson River and sell it ; 
in the winter I attended school, and finally gradu- 
ated in the log school-house, the teacher of which 
boarded around and had to take most of his pay 
in the ashes burned in the school-house. The 
teacher was a great man in his way. He was not 
great in mathematics ; he used to say, "Get a boy 
as far as the Rule of Three and he was fit for any 
business," but he did not believe in vulgar frac. 
tions and did not want to bother the boys' heads 
with them. It was hinted that the Rule of Three 
was as far as he could go, so the rest of my early 
education was picked up from guide-boards and 
sign-posts. 

The family battled on with the world until the 
war of 1812, when I was a 'lad of fourteen years 
but was small for my age. I wanted to get into 
the army, but was too young. I was enthusiastic 
in our cause and country, but my father was in 
in politics a Federalist, and I, a Democrat, could 
not see how he could be opposed to the war as it 



CITY OF RIPON. 13 

was our war against the British. I gloried in the 
success of our troops, and read of all the battles, 
but my father kept on saying it was an unneces- 
sary war. From experience I have learned that 
a war party is the popular party. Young man, 
never oppose a war. If your country engages in 
one you have only to help fight it out. Be it 
ever so unjust, the party in power has so many 
positions to confer that they will win. The proof 
of this you have at this date. The Democratic 
party that was charged with opposition to the 
war of the rebellion was unsuccessful in its elec 
tions, and notwithstanding the aid of some of the 
best men from the Republican party, called Lib- 
erals, it was a failure. So the war party is the 
party. 

About the year 1816, my father sold out his 
lumbering establishment and took his two sons — 
that is, myself and mute brother, called Harry — 
and started, in a covered wagon, to emigrate to 
the West. The West, at that time, was the west- 
ern part of New York and Ohio. The point 
which he had fixed upon in his mind was out to 
the lakes, that was meant to be the paradise of the 
immigrant, but we brought up between Cayuga 
and Seneca Lakes, and a lovely place it was. My 



14 HISTORY OF THE 

father purchased a new farm and set us at work 
clearing it, while he went back to bring the step- 
mother and other effects. We boarded" with a 
good Christian woman, whose husband was a boat- 
man down the lakes and the Mohawk River. My 
father was a good praying man, and he aud our 
landlady would have their prayers every alternate 
night. My father was what was called gifted in 
prayer, but I think our landlady was a little ahead 
of him. When my father was gone after his wife 
the landlady dispensed with praying, as my 
brother was deaf and could not hear them, and she 
must have thought that I was quite good enough 
without her prayers. In due time my father 
returned to the house which we had prepared, and 
we all worked with a will to make a home for the 
family. My sisters had married and were away. 
But for all of our labor we got nothing but a 
wasted strength, for the title to the farm we had 
bought and almost paid for was not good, and we 
lost all. My father was discouraged, and resolved 
to gather the fragments and return to the land of 
his boyhood on Long Island. While working to 
clear the farm and make a home, I had overworked 
myself, aud had to leave farming and go to a select 
school, where I learned to go beyond the Rule of 



CITY OF RIPON. 15 

Three which my first teacher thought was as far 
as a boy need go in mathematics. I had arrived 
at the age to see the need of more schooling, and 
applied myself industriously to my studies, pro. 
gressing so well that I took a school to teach, and 
in this I found I was beaten. Reader, did you 
ever keep school * If you have, you know some- 
thing of its difficulties. To be cooped up with a 
house full of little stupid urchins, and working 
away at them, and seeing the slow progress if any 
you make with them, is discouraging, and it dis- 
couraged me. So I told the trustees, when my 
term was half out, that if they would let me off I 
would call it square, and they did. I had boarded 
around and made the acquaintance of my patrons 
of the district, and it has left many pleasant recol 
lections outside of the school-house. 

My father and family had gone back to Long 
Island and left me to rough it with the world 
alone, but he proposed to me to go and study for 
a physician with a cousin I had in Jefferson 
County, New York, but I did not think well of 
that at first, for I thought I was better adapted 
to the commercial world than to the world of 
physic. Having had an offer to go into a small 
grocery business with a young man, whose sister 



16 HISTORY OF THE 

he thought would do to keep house for us, I made 
up my mind to take that course; whether the sis- 
ter had anything to do with my choice of calling, 
those who are acquainted with human nature may 
judge. I entered the business with the determina- 
tion to become a merchant, but with all my labor 
and application to business I found that the young 
man was not a fit partner for me, for I had been 
taught to abhor gambling, and he would get his 
crony in a back room and play at games for half 
or more of the night, thinking that the company 
of his sister would compensate me for his absence 
from business, but it did not. I began to waver 
in my choice, and leaned toward physic. I pro- 
posed to the young man to let met withdraw, 
but he said that his sister would not consent to 
have me depart just then, so I resolved to leave, 
consent or no consent, and one moonlight night, 
having taken an account of stock and ascertained 
that I could take a portion of what would be my 
share, while my partner was engaged in his game 
of cards and the loved sister was asleep in her 
couch, I took the only boat on that side of Cayuga 
Lake — and that belonged to the firm — and pulled 
out into the calm lake, notwithstanding it was 
midwinter. The lake at this point was about 



CITY OF RIPON. 17 

three miles wide, and is seldom frozen over. I had 
left everything behind but a very small amount of 
money and some clothes packed in a little valise. 
Early in the morning I landed on the east side of 
the lake among strangers and set the boat adrift, 
hoping that it might return and do some one 
good ; at least I had no f in ther use for it. When 
daylight came I could look back across that beau- 
tiful lake, but felt no regret. I had no debts 
against me, but I did not know but that the 
housekeeper was somewhat anxious that I should 
return as a partner for her brother or herself, but 
I had never made any promise in that direction, 
and here let me say that 1 have never, in my 
long life, made a promise to the other sex that I 
have not most religiously kept, and let me say to 
you, young man, never make a promise unless you 
mean to keep it to the word. When I got upon 
the main road leading from Ithica to Auburn, I 
looked back over the straight road for miles and, 
saw a sleigh approaching ; waiting for it to come 
up, as I was very tired, I found that it was going 
directly on my route to Jefferson County, New 
York, and my prospects began to brighten. In 
passing from Auburn to where now stands the city 
of Syracuse, there was only a lone public house, 
3 



18 HISTORY OF THE 

which I found many years after standing on the 
north side of the canal, which was not built at 
that time, 1817. I have since seen a beautiful 
city where the old hotel stood fifty-six years ago. 
From thence I went to the city of Adams, where I 
found my cousins, the Drs. Ely, and with them I 
made arrangements to enter upon the study of 
physic. I loaned my cash capital, which amounted 
to twenty dollars, with the stipulation that it 
should be repaid to me on call if I should get sick 
of the profession, which I did in about three 
months, but when I called for my capital it was a 
hard matter to raise the amount in cash, for the 
country was new and all that the settlers had to 
sell to raise money was black salts, as it was 
called, and the Doctor proposed to pay half in 
cash and the remainder in a tin trunk and an 
assortment of essences. This took me all aback, 
as I had an early hatred of essence peddlars, and 
to think of starting out with a tin trunk in hand 
was revolting. But I had to be humbled, as he 
could do no better, and the ten dollars in cash 
would not take me to Delaware County, New 
York, where my sisters had married and settled — 
one of them to a Mr. Barlow, who was a 
successful merchant there, and who had offered 



CITY OP RIPON. 19 

me a clerkship. This was in the spring of 1818. 
I started out from the village of Adams with 
my ten dollars in cash and ten dollars in essence in 
the latter part of April, 1818. At Adams the 
snow had disappeared, and it looked quite pleas- 
ant, but I had not gone far upou the road to 
Utica when, crossing the high grounds of Red- 
field, I found the snow of great depth, but partly 
gone, and the traveling bad; still I trudged on, 
tin trunk in hand, feeling small indeed. The 
country was new and the inhabitants looked rude 
and rough, and I, a lad of twenty years, was fear- 
ful least I should be robbed of my ten dollars — 
the essence I could willingly spare, as it was hum- 
bling my pride every step I took. I first brought 
up at a log tavern, about which a large crowd of 
hard-looking strangers had gathered. I found it 
was what they called a raffle for a watch, and one 
of the crowd said to me, " Stranger, we are raffling 
for a silver watch, fifty cents a shake; come, put 
in half a dollar and that will make up the amount 
for the watch." I gave him the half dollar and 
was called in to dinner. While I was eating, one 
of the company came to the door and said, "Stran- 
ger, it is your shake, we have all had ours.' 1 1 told 
him he might shake for me, and in a moment or 



20 HISTORY OF THE 

two I heard a loud shout of laughter, and he again 
entered the room and handing me the watch said, 
"Your shake beat us all/' I paid for my dinner 
and a lot of whisky with which to treat the 
crowd, and when I left the tavern they gave me 
three cheers. My expenses were one dollar for 
my dinner and the shake, but I still had my whole 
stock of essence, for into every tavern which I 
entered I found that a peddler had preceded me 
with some tin cases filled with vials of all kinds of 
essences, and those tin cases appeared to me in 
in every bar-room I entered, and saved me the 
trouble of asking if they wanted to buy any 
essence. I arrived safely in Delaware County 
without once drawing upon my stock of essences, 
and I think the tin trunk could be found some- 
where in Roxbury, for I put it out of sight. Some 
of its contents were given to my sisters' babies to 
relieve them of stomach-ache — we, fifty years ago, 
called it the belly-ache, but that is now considered 
vulgar. 

I was twenty years of age when I arrived at 
my sister's in Roxbury, Delaware County ; and, as 
they would not allow me to leave them again, I 
engaged myself to my brother-in-law to work in 
the store, and on the farm in good weather. In 



CITY OF RIPON. 21 

the night and on rainy days I tended the store 
and slept in a bunk under the counter. The even- 
ings were passed in dealing out whisky and gro- 
ceries to the customers, and listening to their dis- 
cussions, which at times were learned and inter- 
esting, and posting up the books. In this way I 
sei ved my employer for two years, and the second 
year he increased my wages from ninety-six dol- 
lars per annum to one hundred dollars. He was a 
thorough business man, and from him I learned 
many things relating to success in business, but he 
died in the prime of life. After serving two years 
I was admitted as partner with an equal share in 
the business t in which I invested one-half of my 
earnings of the previous years, which amounted to 
one hundred dollars. This you will perhaps 
think showed me to be rather a prudent young 
man, it would be so considered in 1873, but that 
is the way we had to begin life — with labor and 
frugality. Then there were no Credit Mobiliers, 
and no opportunities of the kind; the world 
moved slowly, the sun rose and set then just as it 
does now, but the men and women were Dot as 
fast then as now. But think it not strange that 
the world has existed from all eternity to the pres- 
ent century in that old fogy way. What else can 



22 HISTORY OF THE 

you expect from a race of men born at this time, 
with steamboats, telegraph and railroads to aid 
them; now we expect men to get suddenly rich. 
When I came here we had none of these aids, so 
do not be astonished when men count their mil- 
lions as we did our hundreds. 

After I had been in business with my brother- 
in-law one year he died, leaving me to continue 
the business and close up his affairs. He left his 
widow and two children in comfortable circum- 
stances. I had now increased my capital from one 
hundred to one thousand dollars, and as this was 
quite a small capital to continue the business at 
that place — a credit business, I took a partner by 
the name of Morse, and conducted the business 
under the firm name of Mapes & Morse. About 
this time I thought it would be well to take a 
a partner of another kind, and had been casting 
about among my acquaintances to select one for 
life. This sounds as though I could have had my 
choice, which again sounds like egotism, but the 
country merchant of the little village stands very 
high, and is too frequently sought after by the 
good mothers as a match for their daughters in 
preference to some more worthy son of a farmer. 
Young ladies, the custom of the country and times 



CITY OF RIPON. 23 

is altogether wrong, and it should be changed. 
Let the ladies have the same right to make over- 
tures and proposals to the gentlemen which custom 
grants unto the gentlemen of to-day, and not be 
compelled to wait until some worthy, diffident and 
bashful man makes his suit to them, and they 
are compelled, thinking that it will be the only offer 
they may have, to accept. No, the custom is all 
wrong I would have the lady enjoy the privilege 
of looking about her, and, if rejected, trying again. 

After I had selected the young lady whom I 
proposed to marry, and had obtained her consent, 
it was meet that I should obtain also the consent 
of her parents, and that was a great task for so 
modest a young man as I then was. About this 
time I dissolved partnership with Morse The 
time approached when I must ask the consent of 
the girl's parents, and I was at a loss how to express 
myself, but I finally decided that point, and here 
it is. I said: 

"Capt. Frisbee, your daughter Ruth and I are 
about to go into partnership, and we want the con. 
sent of yourself and wife." 

•'Well, sir, if you do not propose to continue 
your partnership longer than you did with Morse, 
you had better not go into it." 



24 HISTORY OF THE 

" Oh, Captain, I meant for life !" 

And it was for life. 

The arrangement was consummated, and time 
has revealed the choice to have been a good one. 
They say that I have been most fortunate in my 
selections through life, for, by heaven's decrees, I 
have twice been called upon to make a similar 
selection. Most of the happiness and sorrows of 
life grow out of the relationship of husband and 
wife. 1 was twenty-two years of age when I made 
the first choice, and from that marriage we had 
two sons and one daughter; the sons are, at this 
date, still living, and are at heads of families, but 
the daughter died when a babe, and her mother, 
with my consent, filled her place with a foster- 
daughter, who was a source of happiness to the 
family as long as she lived, for we all loved her — 
father, mother and brothers loved her as they 
would their own, her parents could not have loved 
her more strongly, and this convinced me that 
there is no such thing as natural affection, it all 
grows out of mutual dependance and cultivation. 

From the time I was married until I was thirty 
years of age I continued in the business of selling 
goods, making potash and whisky, and running a 
grist mill and farm. I was the great man of the 



CITY OF RIPON. 25 

town, and my extensive business had made me 
somewhat popular with the people, They had 
elected me Town Supervisor against my wish, 
and I was the youngest man on the board, for I 
was studying all the rules and sayings in regard to 
what constituted a good business man, and they 
were all adverse to taking any part in politics, and 
in those days a Supervisor was a stepping-stone to 
further promotion; I was also chosen one of Major 
General Preston's aids, with the rank of Major. 
This had a tendency to make me vain, and caused 
me to break through those business rules, for I 
began to think that I was a greater man than I 
thought I was, and hence I consented to be a can- 
didate for office, and was always successful. 

While I was in the Board of Supei visors party 
feeling ran high, and I had taken the Democratic 
side, as that was the war party. A discussion 
arose on the subject of equalization of taxes, the 
Democratic towns against the Federal towns. I 
had taken great pains to inform myself on the 
duties of my position, and went to work to defend 
our ^Democratic towns. I was not aware that I 
was making a speech until I had nearly concluded, 
when, happening to look around and seeing the 
court house filled with listeners to hear what I was 
4 



26 HISTORY OF THE 

saying, for my voice had gone up with my feel- 
ings, T caught the sound of my own voice and it 
frightened me, and I sat down, for I was perfectly 
oblivious to all but my subject ; I found that my 
friends had gone out during the debate and got 
the crowd to come in and hear young Mapes, as I 
was then called, give it to the old Federalists. 
From that day they offered me any position in the 
county. 

About this time the presidential election was 
held, and General Jackson was the popular man. 
This was the time for the old Federalists to come 
over and join the popular side, and they improved 
it, for they were mostly all Jackson men. This 
was an easy road to the Democratic party, for the 
Jackson party was know n as the Democratic party 
at that day, notwithstanding almost one-half of the 
old Federalists were in it. 

At this time, 1819, General LaFayette and son 
returned to America. It was a great day with 
the American people, and they made every demon- 
stration of gratitude. I well remember the occa- 
sion of his passing through the country, for I was 
at the city of Catskill on the Hudson River. 
The people thronged to see the man who had spent 
his fortune and time in aiding us and our cause, 



CITY OF RIPON. 27 

and they showed and seemed to feel such an over- 
flowing of gratitude to him as I have never seen 
before or since manifested by the American people. 
The streets were lined with the multitude, and 
spanned with beautiful arches, while the roadway 
was strewn with flowers, and ladies waved their 
handkerchiefs from the windows to the brave old 
General and his son, whom he had named George 
Washington after his much loved friend with 
whom he had fought during the war of the revo- 
lution. Congress gave to LaFayette a liberal 
amount in lands and other means at that time, and 
the whole people approved. 

In the course of this history I shall have to 
record the unpleasant duty of sending three men 
to state prison. The first instance occurred in this 

way : There was a widow B who had two sons, 

the eldest of whom, when he became of age, thought 
that he could get on in the world faster than 
his father had done by the slow process of keep- 
ing a dairy of cows and making butter, so he con- 
ceived the idea of becoming a drover, and came 
to me in company with his cousin, who was 
in the business, for the purpose of having me 
indorse their note as they desired to purchase a 
drove of cattle. I did so, and they bought a 



28 HISTORY OF THE 

drove in the western part of the state and drove 
them eastward, stopping at their home on the way, 
and keeping them upon their farm for a few days. 

While at Roxbury, this J. B came down to 

my store, and, while about the store and tavern, 
contrived to reach into the bar of the latter and 
took about one hundred dollars. We soon missed 
the money, as we frequently passed from the store 
to the house, and had the company searched, but 
he had hidden the money beneath the saddle upon 
his horse, and was willing to be searched. We 
did not suspect him, and had two other persons 
arrested, whom we tried to frighten into a confes- 
sion, and he, B ; was at their examination. 

After selling his cattle and butter he returned and 
robbed his neighbor, and as he was apt to have it 
proven against him, he got into a confessing mood 
and acknowledged that he stole my money, for 
which I had him arrested, but while on the way to 
jail he escaped from the officer and cleared out. 
After an absence of six months he returned in 
secret for his family, and was recaptured and sent 
to prison, from which, after he had served about a 
year, we had him pardoned. 



CITY OF RIPON. 29 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WEST. 

I continued to sell goods and make whisky, pot. 
ash, etc., for about ten years. At that time many 
of my customers were emigrating to Michigan, and 
as that country was said to be the place for young 
men, I sold out with the rest. I thought the field 
too small, and was anxious to spread out. I had 
done much to build up a town, but the country 
was valleys and mountains, and as each narrow 
valley had its center, T could only bring the people 
of my valley to my place. I had built my stores, 
hotel and mechanic shops, and had aided in build- 
ing churches and a Masonic hall, having been 
made a Mason as soon as my age would permit, 
but of this I shall speak hereafter. I gathered 
together my effects and started for Michigan in 
1829. The currency at that time was mostly in 
state bank notes, and when I started from Dela- 
ware County they were almost all considered 
good, as everyone supposed those in his immediate 
neighborhood were. 



30 HISTORY OF THE 

My trip West was by the Erie Canal, on a line 
boat, and we thought that was great traveling, for 
those boats carried large numbers. All the enter- 
prise of the country was emigrating West, full of 
hope. This style of traveling was an improve- 
went on the way I went many years before with 
my father, in a covered wagon, and was all new, 
novel and interesting, for the boatload of passen- 
gers was a world in miniature, and clergymen, lay- 
men, farmers, mechanics, wives and daughters, 
were all cooped up together; we eat, slept and 
conversed, and learned each other's business. 
Upon the whole the trip was interesting, and 
many little events which occurred at this time will 
be remembered through life. When the boat 
arrived at Buffalo we found the harbor all driven 
full of ice, and had to wait some days for it to 
drift out again, and when it did the only boat 
that was going up the lake for some days was 
bound for Dunkirk, for steamboats were not 
numerous in at that early day, so I shipped for 
that place, and from thence went by stage to 
Cleveland, enjoying a delightful ride over the 
ridge road and through a beautiful country. 
While waiting at Cleveland, a schooner hove in 
sight with a fair wind, and I made arrangements 



CITY OF KIPON. 31 

with the Captain for a passage to Detroit. We 
had but fairly got undei way when we were 
becalmed, but finding on this boat the same kind 
of emigiants that we had on the canal boat, we 
made ourselves as happy as circumstances would 
permit, and took to playing whist, which we made 
very pleasant as we had the ladies join in, it being 
my rule never to play cards unless one-half of the 
party were ladies. In this way we passed the 
time until, by light winds, we came to Fort Mai- 
den, on the Canada side at the mouth of Detroit 
River. Here again we were becalmed, and a few 
of the male passengers, myself included, took to 
the land and walked to Detroit, a distance of 
about twenty miles, through settlements of French 
and Indians; Detroit was a very small town in 
1829. A landlord came and solicited our custom; 
he said he kept the New England House. I 
thought he might be an honest man, but I did not 
find him so. He agreed to hire me a pony to go 
to Tecumseh, and said that his pony was out on 
the common and that he would send a man to look 
for him. We waited for the man to return from 
the search, still boarding at his house, and finally 
ascertained that three of his guests, each trav- 
eling in a different direction, were also waiting 



32 HISTORY OF THE 

for ponies, when in fact he had but one pony, and 
he had already hired him to a person who had 
been at his house several days before. A guest 
had discovered whereabouts of the pony and 
informed us. We stayed no longer at the New 
England, but we left our opinions with him in lan- 
guage too profane for a religious work like this. 

I traveled from Detroit to Tecumseh on foot. 
The country was new, and the musquitoes were 
old and hungry and we had to feed them or fight. 
Passing through Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, I at 
length arrived at Tecumseh, where I found many 
of my Delaware County acquaintances, who were 
pleased to see me and anxious to have me settle 
with them and help build up their town, for I had 
some reputation in that line thus early; but the 
fever and ague was too prevalent at that time to 
suit me, and I resolved to return to the country 
from whence I came. I had in my possession 
at that time about six thousand dollars in State 
bank bills, which 1 considered good money. I 
made my way back to Detroit just in time to take 
a boat for Buffalo, and bidding good-bye to the 
landlord of the New England House, the fever 
and ague, and the musquitoes, we sped on our 
way. Arriving at Buffalo I was greeted with the 



CITY OF RIPON. 33 

intelligence that all the banks on the Hudson 
River had failed, which I found to be too true, at 
least so far as all the money I had was concerned, 
for out of my six thousand dollars I had not 
enough good money to pay my fare back to the 
Hudson, and had to borrow from a friend who 
happened to have Western money. I then wished 
that I had layed out my means in Michigan, but 
here I was with about all my money in broken 
bank bills. I wanted to go into business again, 
but the bills would only command fifty cents on 
the dollar, and as I had to sell them v or wait until a 
receiver could close up the banks,. I chose to the 
former, and decided to go into business with the 
remaining capital, less what I would spend in 
looking for a better place. And let me here 
again give an old man's advice. We float about 
too much; I have found that had I remained at 
my starting-point in life, and practiced the indus- 
try and frugality that I since have, I would have 
been much better off to-day than I am now. 

T bought a farm and mill site on the Delaware 
River, built a mill, store, house, and shop, and 
then bought a stock of goods and commenced 
again. I was now flattered to accept the nomina- 
tion for Member of the Assembly of New York. 
5 



34 HISTORY OF THE 

At this time politics took another turn ; the 
Masonic persecution came. The Masons were 
charged with spiriting away one William Morgan, 
who pretended to have published the secrets of 
Masonry, and party feeling ran high. As I had 
been made a member of the order, I was opposed 
by the Anti-Masons, who had just discovered that 
it was criminal to belong to the society. The 
members of the Baptist Church were almost to a 
man Anti-Masons. My father happened to be a 
Baptist and a Mason about the same length of 
time, and he had his choice either to leave the 
Church or the lodge; he chose the former, say- 
ing that he had never seen anything in Masonry 
derogatory to a good Christian character. But 
with all the opposition of the Baptist Church, I 
was elected in 1830 and 1831. About this time 
the law was passed abolishing imprisonment for 
debt, and I am proud that my vote is recorded in 
favor of abolishing that barbarous law to shut up 
the Indian because he would not pay the skins. 
An Indian asked why a debtor was imprisoned, 
and was told that the debtor did not pay the 
skins, his answer was, "How he catch skins 
there?" ' 

While in the Legislature a company of us 



CITY OF RIPON. 35 

purchased, a tract of pine lands that came into 
market in consequence of the improvements made 
by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 
and I sold out my little town on the banks of the 
Delaware, and removed to a place called Carbon- 
dale, in Pennsylvania. Here I built a mill, took 
a large stock of goods, manufactured five million 
feet of lumber a year and got it into market, and 
prospered in this world's goods. I look back with 
fonder recollections to the five years spent at Car- 
bondale (1831 to 1836), than to any five years of 
my life; it seems as though it was all sunshine. 
I gave employment to a large number of men, and 
also gave a number of young men a start in life, 
which they all improved, and they became the 
very best of business men; of them I may speak 
hereafter. 

The society at Carbondale was composed of 
young men from the adjoining States, and their 
families. They were all strangers to each other 
when they first arrived, consequently there were 
no old quarrels, and all aimed to make one another 
happy, and we were as much so as we can be in 
this world of disappointment. 

But now came another change. It became 
necessary for the company to have a lumber yard 



36 HISTORY OF THE 

in the city of New York, and I was chosen to go 
and start one. I arrived at that place in Decem- 
ber, 1835, while it was still smoking from the 
great fire, and rented a dwelling for my family 
and an office and lumber yard for my business. 
In the spring of 1836 I commenced business with 
a cash capital of thirty thousand dollars. The 
country was then in a blaze of prosperity, which 
was only based upon a paper foundation. I found 
then that I had mistaken my place in the early 
part of my life, for I made over ten thousand 
dollars in one year, and supported my family, and 
that was within one-third as much as I had made 
in the whole of my life before. 

While at Carbondale I was compelled to send 
another culprit to state prison, in the person of 
one Thomas Wall, who had contracted with me 
to supply one of our mills with logs, and draw 
the lumber to the railroad; the contract was quite 
large, amounting to about five thousand dollars 
a year. After he had worked under his contract 
for some time, I found that he was taking up his 
pay faster than he was earning it, so I demanded 
some security and he deeded to me his farm, and I 
gave him an article of agreement whereby he had 
the right to redeem it by paying back, with inter- 



CITY OF RIPON. 37 

est, the amount which I had given him for it. 
When I removed to the city of New York I had 
a settlement with him, and found a balance due 
him, after taking out the price of his farm, of 
two hundred and sixty-five dollars, to apply on 
the redemption of his farm, he having but one 
more year in which to redeem it. I had allowed 
him sixteen hundred dollars for his farm. When 
the year was up he gave me notice through a law- 
yer at Wilkesbarre that there was on deposit for 
me in the bank at that place the sum of five hun- 
dred dollars, when I should reconvey his farm to 
him according to contract. When I received this 
notice I could not conceive what it meant, as there 
was due me the sum of sixteen hundred dollars, 
with interest for two years, less the receipt of two 
hundred and sixty -five dollars, so I made the trip 
from New York to Wilkesbarre to see what it 
meant, and there I was met with a forged receipt, 
or the receipt for two hundred and sixty-five dol- 
lars altered to one for twelve hundred and sixty- 
five dollars. I had to commence suit to get pos- 
session of the farm, and Wall came into court with 
the aforesaid forged or altered receipt for twelve 
hundred and sixty-five dollars, but we got hold of 
the papers and he was found guilty and sent to 



88 HISTORY OF THE 

state prison. After allowing him to serve one 
year, I petitioned for and obtained his release. 

While engaged in business at Carbondale I was 
appointed postmaster, and kept the post office at 
my store, placing the duties of the office in charge 
one of my clerks, J. Bowen, to whom I have 
before alluded; he also served as my book-keeper. 
In those days we had no express companies or 
postal order arrangement, and much money was 
sent by mail. It was discovered that large 
amounts so sent had not arrived at their destina- 
tion, and frequent complaints were made to me 
me in regard to the matter, and I at once wrote to 
the Post Office Department. One day a tall, fine- 
looking young man entered the store and inquired 
about how soon a remittance would reach New 
York, for he was not sure, as he afterwards told 
me, that the iifficulty was not with us. He 
mailed a letter with funds in it, and went on with 
the stage the next morning, but in a day or two 
he was back again and showed me my letter to 
the Department and disclosed his business, stating 
that he was a Government detective. He again 
sealed up a large package of counterfeit money, 
and mailed it to H. Wyckoff & Co., Grocer Mer- 
chant, New York, of whom I bought goods; he 



CITY OF KIPON. 39 

also mailed a short letter to the same address, 
advising them of the contents of the package, 
should they receive it. Again the detective 
started off in the stage which contained the mail 
bag wherein his package had been deposited, and 
so contrived at the different postoffices along the 
route that he saw the postmaster empty the bag 
and then kept his eyes on the package until it 
went into the bag again. It arrived in safety at 
Milford, on the Delaware River, where he again 
saw it placed in the bag and removed to a hotel 
opposite, where it was deposited in the baggage 
room to remain until two o'clock the next morn 
ing. He then went to the next office on the 
route, called the brick house, which was located in 
New Jersey, and again witnessed the emptying of 
the bags, but the package was missing. The stage 
went on, but the detective remained behind, and, 
in company with the postmaster of the brick 
house ; leturned to Milford, where he gave his 
companion a twenty-dollar bill with which to buy 
groceries at the post office store in that place. He 
did so and received in exchange one of the coun- 
terfeit five dollar bills, and the detective thought 
he had entrapped his man, but it was not so, 
for upon inquiring of the postmaster where he 



40 HISTORY OF THE 

had got the five dollar bill, he reflected a moment 
and then said that he had received it of the land- 
lord across the way. We went to him and 
inquired where he had received the bill, and the 
trap had him; but the public was slow to believe 

that Mr. D could have done so, for he was 

class leader in the Methodist Church, and was 
prosperous in his business. Although large 
amounts had been taken from letters, he would 
only acknowledge himself guilty of the act in 
which he had been caught. He was sent to state 
piison, and the society had to lose him as class 
leader for a while ; but, after serving a year, he 
also was pardoned. It was a narrow escape for 
the postmaster at Milford, as a part of the money 
was first found on him. The landlord had got 
hold of a postoffice key, and found time to look 
through the bags while they were deposited in his 
baggage room. 

The five years which I had spent at Carbondale 
had more diversity of life in them than four times 
five years of the rest of my life, for here was a 
world in miniature, all nations being represented 
in the laborers at the coal mines and lumber 
camps. The Welch miner, the Scotchman, the 
German, the Dane, and the Irishman, all found 



CITY OF KIPON. 41 

employment here, and, having a stock of goods to 
sell, I enjoyed an opportunity of reading their 
characters and noting what was peculiar to each. 
The Irishmen were numerous, and possessed their 
usual store of fun and fight; much that we put 
down to their credit as wit, is more frequently 
honest blundering. Once, while traveling up the 
valley of the Lackawanna from the mills to my 
store, 1 discovered an Irishman by the roadside 
digging a hole or sinking a shaft, and, it being 
some distance from the mines, my curiosity was 
aroused, and I said to him, "Pat. what are you 
digging there for?" He answered, "For ffty 
ce7its, sir/" That was all he cared about it, and it 
showed his character; it was immaterial to him 
why the hole was sunk, it was the fifty cents that 
he was digging for. This would be set down as 
Irish wit, but it was only an honest answer with- 
out the thought of a witty reply. There was the 
Welchman down in the mine under the earth, with 
his lamp in his cap, working away, while his good 
woman, with her round, healthy, beautiful face, 
performed the housework and shopping; aod when 
the Sabbath came, all went to church, foi they 
were a very religious and conscientious people. 
There was also a large sprinkling of Yankees, who 
6 



42 HISTORY OF THE 

sold goods and done the mechanical work of the 
place. Altogether, at this date, the population 
was as good as could be found, at least they 
pleased me and I think I did not fail to please 
them. 

Another change now came over the spirit of my 
dreams, for in the very next year the whole com- 
mercial world went by the board , every bank in 
the country failed, and with them went about all 
that I had earned through life. All my lumber 
had been sold for notes at two, three and four 
months' time, none of which were paid when they 
became due, and out of the forty thousand dollars 
capital which I could have counted the year 
before, I could only save, after paying my debts 
at par, about six thousand dollars, the remainder 
is due me yet if it has not been paid off by the 
bankrupt act. 



CITY OF RIPON. 43 



CHAPTER III. 

STEAMBOATING. 

Well, here I am again, most 40 years old, and 
with six thousand dollars capital. What shall I 
go at next. I wanted to do something that had 
no credit to it. I thought of a freighting and 
passage business on the Hudson River, so I em- 
barked in this, bought a steamboat called the 
General Jackson, the boat that Vanderbilt built 
to run between New York and Peekskill, and in 
running with an opposition boat of that line, blew 
her up at Grassy Point, on the route. After she 
had been rebuilt I bought her, paying down my 
whole pile, and getting in debt six thousand 
dollars besides I put her on as an opposition 
boat to run between Kingston, New York, to New 
York city; the other boat on that line was called 
the Hudson, and was commanded by Captain 
Woolsey. I placed a young man named Rexford 
in charge of my steamer as captain, but he was 
drowned on the first passage down to the city, and 
I assumed command in consequence; this is where 



44 HISTORY OF THE 

rny title of captain originated, having before 
ranked as major from the military commission 
heretofore spoken of. 

I again took hold with a determination to make 
a business and property. Upon the steamer's first 
trip she had carried but fifteen passengers and a 
small freight, while the other boat had one 
hundred passengers and a very large freight, but 
after I went on board I endeavored to make mine 
the most popular, and was successful, for in a 
short time I carried the hundred passengers, and 
Captain Woolsey had the fifteen. The owners of 
the Hudson then offered me two thousand dollars 
if I would haul my boat off", or they would take 
one thousand dollars and haul off themselves. I 
gave them the thousand dollars, and had the busi- 
ness all to myself for a while. Now, young man, 
perhaps you would like to know how this was 
done; it was by making every man that came 
on board the boat feel at his ease and at home. 
I dressed plainly and was ready at any time to 
assist a farmer or merchant in selling his freight, 
and if I saw a retiring or bashful man on the 
boat I engaged in conversation with him and 
made him feel as if he was as good as a steamboat 
captain, and that he had at least one friend aboard, 



CITY OF RIPON. 45 

and then when he returned home he would say 
unto ever)' man he met, "If you go to New York 
take Captain Mapes' boat, for he is a man that 
will talk to a person with a sheeps'-wool coat on ' 
Yes, that is the secret ; you must not only appear 
friendly but must be so at heart, for "if you 
would have friends through life, show yourself 
friendly." 

After getting my boat into a successful busi- 
ness and paying for her the first season, I pro- 
posed to turn my early acquaintances in Delaware 
County to my advantage, and have them go to 
New York by way of Kingston. They had here- 
tofore traded by way of Catskill, where they had 
steamboats, and had a line of coaches from their 
place to Delhi. I proposed to my Kingston 
friends to establish a mail route and line of 
stages to Delhi, but no, the place had been a large 
town for over a hundred years and nothing of the 
kind ever came in from the West except, once a 
week, a boy on horseback with saddle-bags; so I 
left the boat for a week and went to Washington 
and had a mail route established After estab- 
lishing the route I supposed that I could get some 
one to put on a line of stages, but here again I was 
disappointed, and finally I bought three Troy 



46 HISTORY OF THE 

coaches and thirty horses and established the first 
line of stages West from Kingston. This was 
new business for me. Hiring stage-drivers, bar- 
gaining with landlords to keep the same, together 
with steamboating, occupied my entire time. I 
will here relate how I selected one of my drivers. 
A great, overgrown Dutch boy came and proffered 
his services; I asked him if he had ever driven 
any, and he answered, "Yes, I have driven lots in 
my time — sometimes horses and sometimes oxen, 
but mostly oxen." This settled the point, and 
convinced me that he was an honest boy; if he 
acknowledged that he had driven oxen more than 
horses, he had not attempted to deceive me as to 
his experience. I hired him and he proved faith- 
ful and honest, and he and one other driver 
handed me, at the end of the month, all the money 
they had taken for way passengers between sta- 
tions, which was sufficient to pay their month's 
wages, while all the other drivers never handed 
over a dollar. The inauguration of a line of 
Troy stages through a country the people of which 
had never before seen a four-horse team, was a 
great event. The inhabitants along the line, and 
at the little villages and corners, came out and 
fired off their anvils, swung their hats, and shouted 



CITY OF RIPON. 47 

"Great is the Captain !" I went over the road 
on the first trip; now a railroad passes over the 
greater portion of the route. 

In speaking of my exploits at gunning, I have 
an anecdote to relate: While living at Rondout, 
and running my boat, acquaintances in the city 
of New York would frequently come and spend 
the summer , with us. On one occasion we had a 
lady friend who was always boasting of her 
exploits in gunning, and ; in order to give her an 
opportunity of displaying her superior skill, we 
made up a family party, and went back from the 
town about seven miles and there ordered dinner. 
While the dinner was being prepared our lady 
friend loaded her gun, and we all sallied into the 
woods in quest of game, she telling all the while 
how she could shoot game on the wing. I was 
not very credulous on that subject, so I said, " I 
will throw my new beaver hat into the air, and 
hit if you can." I thought my hat would be per- 
fectly safe, and, as she dared me to the act, up it 
went. Sure enough, she had completely riddled 
and iuined it. It -was a good joke on me, for I 
had to return home with an unbrella over my 
head, but I took good care not to go through the 
town of Kingston, on my way to Rondout, until 



4$ HISTORY OF THE 

it was night. This incident helped to make the 
ride a pleasant and enjoyable one, and I hope that 
the lady who shot the hat is still living that she 
may read this account of the affair, for it would 
revive some pleasant recollections ; but I fear she 
has gone over the river. A dear girl she was to 
our whole family. She was the wife of Doctor 
Spooner, and the daughter of John F. Darrow, 
formerly of Catskill, and then of New York city. 
An affair occurred, while I was captain of the 
steamer, which made a lasting impression upon 
my mind, namely, the falling overboard of my 
youngest son, and his narrow escape from drown- 
ing. He had been in the habit of going to New 
York with me, accompanied by his mother, but 
on this occasion a schoolmate, a great friend of 
his, was going to the city, and he desired to accom- 
pany him. As his mother could not go, she 
refused permission, for he was so full of life that 
she thought it required her constant care to pre- 
vent his falling into the river, so he got me to 
intercede for him, which I did, and, after promis- 
ing to look after him and return him in safety, 
she consented. But the boat had hardly gone 
twelve miles on the trip before I heard the cry of 
"Man overboard !" and springing to the yawl- 



CITY OF RIPON. 49 

boat, which was suspended from cranes on the 
side of the steamer, I lowered away with all pos- 
sible speed, and, while doing so, caught sight of 
the body as it rose on the swell caused by the 
wheels. I knew from this that the person who 
who had fallen overboard had been carried 
beneath the wheels, but could not say whether he 
was dead or alive. The two expert oarsmen in 
the yawl rowed with all their might, the steamer 
was stopped, and all eyes were strained to see 
whether they would be successful in lescuing the 
person. I supposed it was a man, until I heard 
the chambermaid remark to a lady beside her, 
"Does the captain know that it is his son Tim?" 
This was the first information I had as to who it 
was, but my eldest son, who was also on board, 
had made the discovery and was crying "Row, 
row, row." As good fortune would have it the 
boat was stopped just in time for one to reach 
over the bow and rescue the lad, and then, oh ! the 
breathless anxiety to know whether he was alive 
or dead. They rowed back to the steamer, and 
I went down the steps lowered for that purpose 
and took him from the arms of the boatman ; 
one little hand was reaching out for me, and the 
other giasped a little straw hat which had nearly 
7 



50 HISTORY OF THE 

been his la&t. It was with great care that we 
restored hiin to life, for he was nearly gone ; then 
came to mind my promise to his mother that I 
would bring him back safe. He was always a 
pet boy, and is now, at this writing, cashier of the 
Fourth National Bank of Chicago. Such inci- 
dents endear our our children to us, at least it has 
had that effect on me. 

While building my residence and improving my 
grounds at Rondout, I employed a young man to 
run the boat, but before he had been in command 
two months he ran her upon a reef in East River 
and stove a large hole in her. I had run her for 
seven years and had never missed a trip, but this 
brought us to a stand-still. She was sunk at the 
Palisades, and was worth seventy-five thousand 
dollars. I had a contract at that time for towing 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's coal 
from Rondout to New York city, and as mine 
had been the only boat upon the North and East 
Rivers which was not owned by the great steam- 
boat monopoly of Newton, Drew & Co., I was 
compelled to hire a boat from them in order to 
fulfill my contract. But when that firm heard 
that I had raised my boat and found her so badly 
wrecked that she could not again be rendered 



/ CITY OF RIPON. 51 

seaworthy, and would have to be sold for what 
she would bring, I could not buy a boat of them 
for what it was worth. My steamer was unin- 
sured, for it was not thought necessary to insure 
boats running on the Hudson as they were con- 
stantly in a good harbor, and although she had 
cost me seventy-five thousand dollars I finally sold 
her for six thousand. 

Here a blank occurs in my life,, and I do not 
know how to fill it, for there are things which 
have gone from me as effectually as if I had been 
so long buried. I had worked night and day for 
thirty days to raise my boat and put her in order 
again, and was prostrated, body and mind, in con- 
sequence. Reader, do you know by what a slen. 
der thread the mind is held? When I found that 
my boat was ruined, and my contract lost for want 
of a boat with which to fulfill it, my courage 
failed me for the first time in my life; what to do 
I did not know. My family supposed that I had 
a competency for life, they did not see as I did 
that a house and home without an income to sup- 
port it, was no home at all. So I left the scene 
and threw myself on the steamboats and railroads 
to take me anywhere, I did not much care where. 
This was in the summer of 1844, when the presi- 



52 HISTORY OF THE 

dential election was held, and the Democrats 
elected Polk for President and Dallas for Vice 
President; but politics had no charm for me, and 
life appeared like a blank. I had been tem- 
perate, frugal and industrious in my habits, and 
now, at forty-six years of age, I was without hope 
for the little capital I had saved from the wreck 
was not sufficient to allow me to compete success- 
fully with EasterD capitalists. So I drifted along 
to the West, where all go to mend or make a for- 
tune. I was alone and all were strangers to me, 
for I rather avoided acquaintances, but while 
en route from Albany westward, I fell in with an 
old friend who was Chief Engineer of the State 
of New York. He asked me where I was going, 
but I could not answer as I did not know myself. 
He had not heard of my business disaster, but 
had discovered from my appearance that some- 
thing was wrong, so I told him all about it. He 
told to cheer up, and asked me to have some good 
brandy with him as he supposed it might have the 
effect of awaking me from my gloomy thoughts, 
and it did, for up to this time I had never taken 
any stimulants, having been strictly temperate in 
that direction, and the liquor had a most powerful 
effect upon me. I do not here wish to recommend 



CITY OP RIPON. 53 

brandy for all the ills of life, but it gave roe new- 
life, for it operated upon me quite differently from 
what it would have done had I been accustomed 
to the use of stimulants. From my friend's advice, 
and the medicine he gave me, I took another start 
in life and tried to acquire a property that would 
not sink by having a hole stove in it, so I drifted 
westward past Detroit, by boat t and finally landed 
at Racine, Wisconsin, where I went back into 
the country. Here, for the first time in my life, 
I ^aw a prairie, and to me, having been brought 
up in the Catskill Mountains, it was most beau- 
tiful; yes, that prairie was the loveliest sight I 
had ever seen in nature, and through the summer, 
with its monthly change of flowers, there was 
nothing more enchanting. I resolved to go back 
at once for my family, purchase some land in this 
county, and make a new home in the far West, as 
it was then called; so I returned, took my family 
and effects, and again started. My family was 
now composed of my wife, two sons and a daugh- 
ter; my mute brother had lived with me since the 
death of my father, who was buried at Roxbury, 
btft now very reluctantly remained behind with 
a sister in Delaware County, for we were very 
much attached to each other, and my wife had 



54 HISTORY OF THE 

shown Herself so kind to him that he loved her as 
a mother. The daughter was a foster-daughter, 
and was adopted under the following circum- 
stances: While living at Rondout our only 
daughter was born, and a lovely child she was, 
but as soon as she got to know and love us, 
Heaven recalled her. The loss to her mother and 
myself was great, and how to fill the space she 
had occupied in our hearts we did not know. 
About this time our nearest neighbor lost his wife, 
and she left a child of about the same age as our 
dear Fanny, and looked quite like her, so my wife, 
obtaining the father's consent, adopted her. We 
took more pains, if possible, in bringing up this 
girl than we should have done had it been our 
own, and we were well repaid for she grew into a 
lovely woman. She married quite to our satisfac- 
tion, and emigrated with her husband to Minne- 
sota ; but Heaven claimed her also, and her body 
lies in the family grave-yard at Ripon, Wisconsin. 
Our trip to Wisconsin was very pleasant, the 
only drawback being the uncertainty of my occu- 
pation when we should arrive at that beautiful 
country. Our route was by way of Oswego and 
Niagara Falls to Buffalo, and thence by boat to 
Racine. On the passage from Oswego to Niagara 



CITY OF RIPON. 55 

Falls the entire family, myself included, were sea- 
sick. Reader, have you ever been sea-sick? If 
so, you know what it is to die, for I would as soon 
die as linger long with sea-sickness. On arriving 
at Racine we took a house and lived in a very 
humble manner until we could look up a place 
and make a home of our own, and for this pur- 
pose I took team and, in company with my eldest 
son, started for those delightful prairies upon 
which we had fondly hoped to find a suitable 
location. We traveled through to Galena, on the 
Mississippi River, but found no lands at Govern- 
ment prices, and our means were too limited to 
purchase otherwise. I had given my sons their 
choice to remain East and continue their studies 
or come with me to the West, and the novelty of 
trip caused them prefer the latter, but they found 
that it was not so pleasant to take the laboring 
oar as they had to in this country, for it was very 
new as early as 1844. 

About this time a friend of ours, from Albany, 
was building a new hotel at Racine, and he 
urged us to take it and furnish it, which 
we did. It was Congress Hall, the best public 
house in the Territory. After placing the hotel 
in successful running order we left the family in 



56 HISTORY OF THE 

charge, and again started out to find the spot 
which we had so long pictured in our minds. We 
made up a party for the purpose of exploring the 
Territory, consisting of Lieutenant Webster of the 
army, a Virginia lawyer named Clarey, Captain 
Lathrop of Albany, and myself, and crossed the 
prairies by team to Janesville, which then con- 
tained two stbres, two public houses, a court 
house and about a dozen buildings. We next 
went to Madison, then the seat of the government 
of Wisconsin, a town about as large as Janesville, 
and from thence to Portage City, or, as it was then 
called, Fort Winnebago. Here we found the 
remnant of the military garrison under command 
of a sergeant, and spent the night. Old Captain 
Lawrence kept the only public house, and could 
tell all about the country, for settlers were few 
and far between. The Captain had been in com- 
mand of the old fort in days gone by ; he was a 
very pleasant gentleman, and made our short stay 
very pleasant. From here we started for Green 
Lake, of which we had heard much, expecting to 
find another village, but on approaching the lake 
and inquiring for the best hotel, we were informed 
that Saturday Clark's hospitable mansion was the 
only place we could stay. Here we were most 



CITY OF RIPON. 57 

kindly received and entertained, as was many 
a traveller in the early settlement of the country. 
Mr. Clark (he was best known as Sat Clark) could 
tell us more than we had found out on the 
whole trip, as he had been with his father, the 
Colonel, when he commanded the old fort, and had 
served as the army store-keeper. Our Virginia 
lawyer, Cleary, was highly pleased with our visit 
here, for he and Sat would talk over Virginia 
affairs. Clark's hospitality consisted in meats 
and drinks, the latter weie not objectionable for 
the hotels at that time were some distance apart 
which made it pleasant to a weary and wayworn 
traveler. 

* * «■ -H- * 

How fleeting and frail is man's popularity. 
When I went back to Delaware County in after 
years, I expected to be the great man they made 
me believe 1 was when they flattered me into run- 
ning for office and sent me to the Legislature, or 
when they put me in command of regiments, in 
the days of militia training, with a sword in my 
hand and brass epaulets on my shoulders. 

On one occasion, by order of the General, I took 
command of two regiments, got them into line, 
and tried my voice, and was again frightened at 
8 



58 HISTORY OF THE 

its sound. I had practiced the rule, "Raise youi 
voice so that the furthermost man in the ranks 
can hear you, and you have accomplished what is 
needed," and found that I had succeeded; for I 
saw the whole line move at the word ; but I had 
to overcome a natural bashful ness that most young 
men have, but they have nothing to fear but 
ignorance, and they must cure that by knowing 
of what they speak and do, for if they are right 
they have nothing to fear. 

On returning to those old haunts I was taken 
all aback in my supposed greatness. I met a 
farmer on the streets who appeared to be a well- 
to-do man, so I accosted him and the following 
conversation occurred : 

"Do you live m this town?" 

"Yes." 

"How long have you lived here?" 

"I was born here." 

"What is your father's name?" 

"Scudder" 

"William Scudder?" 

"Yes." 

"Your mother's name was Betts?" 

"Yes." 



CITY OF RIPON. 59 

He looked at ine to see if he could recognize 
me, but he could not. 

"Do you know who built those houses, stores 
and mills?" t continued, alluding to the little 
village which T had erected years before, 

"I do not," he answered. 

"Have you never heard that David P. Mapes, 
or Major Mapes as he was called, had erected 
those buildings?" 

"I have not/' 

"Have you ever heard your father speak of 
him ?" 

"No." 

"Well," said I, "I am the person who built 
them, and have so soon been forgotten." 

He was a farmer, lived in the town, had a dairy 
of twenty or thirty cows, and was a man of some 
account, while I was forgotten. It humbled me 
some. So you who are aspiring for name and 
place can see how soon your greatness will fly 
away if you do not stay to blow your own horn ; 
and that will do you no good unless it is a silver 
horn, for a common tin horn will not even keep 
you in remembrance. 

My family was now composed of my wife and 
two sons, one of whom was studying law, and the 



60 HISTOEY OF THE 

other attended school ; my daughter was not born 
until we had lived at Kingston for some time. 
What I call Kingston was composed of the old 
town of Kingston and Rondout, on the river, and 
had grown up when the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal was built from this point. I took part in 
building up the town of Rondout, for after having 
been in the steamboat business for seven years, 
I concluded that I was well able to stay on shore, 
so I built me a fine residence overlooking the town 
and river. 

It has been said that when the Quaker desires 
a curse to befall an enemy, he wishes that the 
spirit of building would possess him, for he who 
contains this spirit is sure to come to ruin. I have 
always been followed by the Quakers' curse, for 
I was fond of seeing and making improvements. 
I have built too much in every town in which I 
have lived — too much for my own profit, but it 
helped make the town. Once, at Rondout, after 
I had laid up the steamer for the winter and my 
clerk had made out his bills and was at leisure, he 
said to me, "I want to go at it and build a 
church?" "What," said I, "build a Baptist 
Church ?" he being of that denomination. "Yes," 
was his answer, "and what will you give?" I 



CITY OF REPON. 61 

told him that I would give a lot to build it on 
and one hundred dollars, so at it he went with a 
subscription and in a few days had sufficient to 
build a small church; he then got a revival 
preacher to visit us, and before the opening of 
navigation he not only had the church built, but 
had members enough to fill it They had to cut 
the ice in the river in order to perform the rite of 
baptism. This clerk's name was Asa Eaton, and he 
is one of the young men to whom I have hereto- 
fore alluded as having started in life with me ; 
he became one of the best business men in the 
country. 

While the Baptists were building their church, 
I spoke to the agent of the Delaware and Hudson 
Canal Company of the success with which they 
had met, and he said, "You have done so much 
for them, why do you not do something for us 
Presbyterians?" "You have already built a 
church," I replied. "Yes," said he, "but it needs 
painting." "Well," replied I, "start a subscrip- 
tion and head it yourself with a liberal sum, and 
it shall be done." He did so, and at it I went, 
and in thirty days the church was handsomely 
painted, both inside and out. 

While upon the subject of church building, I 



62 HISTORY OF THE 

will boast of another exploit of the kind. When 
I was selling goods at Beaver Dam, Roxbury, a 
society called Christians or Unitarians was started, 
and there was quite a large number of them. Their 
revival preacher absented himself for some time, 
but finally wrote that if they would have a house 
for him to preach in within sixty days, he would 
again return, so they went to the Presbyterian 
deacons aud asked for the use of their church for 
one occasion, but they said, "No; your man denies 
the divinity of Christ ; you cannot have him 
preach there." "But," said a Unitarian, "I helped 
to build your church ; I subscribed and paid my 
money" "No," said the deacon, "I recollect that 
you did not sign for the church, you signed for 
the steeple; if Mr. Martin is willing to go up into 
the steeple he may, but he shall not go into the 
pulpit." The Unitarians were out of patience, 
and came to me with their complaints I told 
them to build a church, but they said they could 
not do it in sixty days. I then told them to get 
up a subscription and I would see that Mr. Martin 
had a church in the specified time. They did so, 
and in sixty days the church was complete, with 
pulpit and de«k, and with a Bible lying upon the 
desk. Their preacher came, and the house was 



CITY OF RIPON. R3 

filled to overflowing. This church has since been 
destroyed by fire; it was located near what is 
is now called Burhan's Corners. So I have gone 
on through life, helping those who were behind 
with their rows, and I have taken great satisfac- 
tion in it, not so much for the praise I got, as the 
self-satisfaction I experienced. Every act of life 
has its selfishness; we get a self-satisfaction, and 
that is selfishness; the very best acts of life can 
be traced to the same source. 

Even now, at this age of life, I am anxious to 
go back to the old haunts and towns that I have 
helped to build. I am told that a railroad now 
runs up the valley of the Delaware, through the 
place where I first commenced life. This valley 
at Beaver Dam, Roxbury, has a beauty to it which 
I can not forget; it is a narrow vale with stupen- 
dous mountains on each side. I well remember 
my impression when I first beheld it, over fifty 
years ago. Judge Otis Preston said to me when 
he first saw me there, "Young man, how do you 
like the country?" "Your mountains are very 
high," I answered. "They are," .'aid he, "but 
they will not hurt you if you keep off of them." 
I found it to be so, and I think you will have to 
keep your railroads in the valleys. I well remem- 



64 HISTORY OF THE 

ber how we all turned out one Fourth of July, 
fifty years ago, to improve the wagon road that 
passed under what we then called Independent 
Rock, which at that time hung over the road. 
There we on that day ate our independence din- 
ner, and, while so doing, concluded that we must 
have some speeches from that overhanging rock, 
Our orator and road-master and master of cere- 
mony was Zachariah Snyder (he has gone to his 
Father, I suppose,) and upon him we called for a 
speech. He mounted the rock and commenced by 
saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are all here," 
this he repeated several times, and then broke 
down. An old man in the crowd, named John 
Delong, having noticed the Captain's embarrass- 
ment, cried out, "Zachius, come down!" and this 
you may well think brought him and the crowd 
down at the same time. I hope that some of 
those who were with us on that day are still left 

to read this account. 

* •* # * # 

Keeping hotel at Congress Hall, Racine, was 
not a success; although we had the house full of 
boarders, including the elite of the place, it did 
not pay It had taken about two thousand dol- 
lars to furnish it, which had made a severe draft 



CITY OF RIPON. 65 

upon my already depleted capital; and I would 
have done much better had J invested it, as I 
did the remainder, in government property in and 
about what is now called the city of Ripon. My 
eldest son had made the acquaintance of the foster- 
sister and neice of George H. Walker, of Walker's 
Point memory, and was married to her, and a most 
worthy lady she proved to be. We left them in 
charge of Congress Hall, but they soon gave it 
up and came with us to Ripon, and we forfeited 
the hotel furniture in order to relinquish the 
lease. We found that Milwaukee carried too 
many guns for Racine, notwithstanding the latter 
possessed the most beautiful town-site in the 
West, and did not lack for business men of the 
right stamp. But the mass of emigrants in those 
days shipped for Wisconsin, and, as the first 
landing-place was at Milwaukee, they were 
hustled out of the boat, upon its arrival, with 
the remark, "'This is Wisconsin." And so it was. 
I had found at Racine the same class of people 
that I had left at Carbondale, Pennsylvania, with 
so much regret, and I still cherish their memory ; 
the past thirty years has made great changes 
among them, but some of us still live on, and hope 
to until this world is all we could wish it to be. 
9 



66 HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FOUNDING OF RIPON. 

Who would have thought, forty years ago, that 
Wisconsin would have accomplished so much in 
so short a peiiod ? 

While upon that exploring expedition through 
the Territory we selected the country around and 
about where the city of Ripon now stands, and of 
this place I shall have much to say hereafter, for 
it is a child of my own conceiving and bringing 
forth ; they call me the founder of the city, and so 
I am. It was here that we found the spot which 
we had pictured in our minds, and a more beauti- 
ful place I have never seen in nature. When our 
party came out of what was called the (Ceresco) 
valley they shouted with one accord, "This is the 
spot ! " We were told that this prairie and grove 
was government land, but we found that one 
hundred and sixty acres had been entered by the 
Register of the Land Office at Green Bay, so we 
entered the lands about it. About two thousand 
acres had been entered the year before by an 



CITY OF RIPON. 67 

incorporated company called the Wisconsin Pha- 
lanx, and a settlement had already been com- 
menced. We had entered about two sections, 
or twelve hundred and eighty acres, and as we 
desired to build our city upon the quarter-section 
above mentioned, we dispatched an agent to the 
Register of the Land Office at Green Bay, Gov- 
ernor Horner, with instructions to buy it, but the 
agent of the Wisconsin Phalanx had out-ridden 
our man, Charles H. Deekin, and had offered so 
much for it that the price had risen beyond our 
means, and as the land in question contained the 
water-power, we could build no mill, consequently 
we settled down to farming, and, having bought 
eight yoke of oxen and a span of horses, com- 
menced to put in our crops, build farm houses, etc. 
The Wisconsin Phalanx had commenced the year 
before and had already demonstrated what the 
land would produce, for their crop consisted of 
about fifteen thousand bushels of wheat. Our 
first crop, the year after, comprised about seven 
thousand bushels of wheat, oats and corn, but 
was mostly wheat. 

The Wisconsin Phalanx Company sprang from 
the doctrines of one Charles Fourier, of France, a 
sort of communist, hence they were called the 



68 HISTORY OF THE 

Fouriers. The company comprised about two 
hundred men, women and children, and came 
in competition with many of my plans. They 
built two long buildings to contain all the families 
in the association, and had one general boarding 
house. It was a sort of a joint stock company; 
each put in his capital or labor, and each drew in 
proportion to his share, being charged with board. 
The system looked well in theory, but failed in 
practice. I used to read, in the New York 
Tribune, letters written upon the subject by one 
Brisbane, and thought that the system would im- 
prove the condition of man, and it would have 
done so had all men been angels, but unluckily 
for the world they are not. I suppose there were 
as many angels in that settlement of Fouriers as 
could be found elsewhere in the same number of 
settlers. This system, with its varied attractions, 
drew together quite a number. Having in their 
midst a good band of music they held frequent 
cotillion parties, and they had some very fine 
dancers. These parties attracted the young men 
and women, and they enjoyed themselves well for 
a while, but finally it began to drag As they 
had the society all to themselves, the men had to 
dance with the same ladies and witness the same 



CITY OF BEPON. 69 

display of ball dress on each occasion, and the 
ladies had to be led out to dance by the same 
man without a prospect of a new flirtation, and 
it became monotonous. When we settled in the 
neighborhood, Warren Chase was the President 
or head of the association. He was a man of 
much plausibility and some talent, and strove hard 
to uphold the association; he had it incorporated 
by the Legislature, but after a few years' trial he 
found it would not work with frail, selfish man, 
so he dissolved it. 

The following extract from a work written by 
William Mitchell formed a part of the history of 
Fond du Lac County, and was furnished by me. 
The two knit-browed men therein alluded to, were 
Major Bovay and myself. I had taken the Major 
into partnership with me when building up the 
city, consequently he was one of its founders : he 
was also one of the purchasers of a portion of the 
Phalanx property, upon which we afterwards built 
much of the town. The college was first called 
Brock way College, and should still bear that 
name, for it was adopted under the following cir- 
cumstances: The county was then poor in con- 
vertible funds, and we had to resort to every 
available means to accomplish our purpose. In 



70 HISTORY OF THE 

order to dispose of the stock ; I proposed to grant 
the privilege of naming the college unto the per- 
son who should take the largest amount. E. L. 
Lathrop, for his brother-in-law, Wm. Brockway, 
subscribed for the largest amount, consequently 
it was named Brockway College, and that name 
should never have been changed. When we first 
moved in the matter the college was to have been 
a liberal institution, but the Methodists were then 
building a denominational college at Appleton 
and were selling their scholarships all about us, 
so we offered our building, together with ten 
acres of land, unto any orthodox church which 
would make it a school of the highest order, and 
Congregationalists took it, and well have they 
carried it out. It required much labor to dispose 
of the stock of the college, but determined minds 
had said it should be done, and it was done. It 
was almost creative power, for all that was Leces- 
sary to build the world was the command of 
of the Cieator that it should be done, and it was 
done. I recollect going to one of our best farm- 
era, Almon Osborne, for a subscription for the 
college and he put down twenty-five dollars; 
proud of so liberal a donation, I went to his next 
neighbor, Julian Rivers, and, presenting the sub- 



CITY OF RIPON. 71 

scription, said, "Your neighboi, Osborne, has put 
down twenty-five dollars." Scanning the list a 
moment, he remarked, " Well, put me down for 
thirty." He was not to be outdone by his neigh- 
bors, for he burned lime from his quarry and 
drew it to the site of the building in order that 
the foundation walls of the first edifice might be 
laid. To such men is Ripon indebted for its early 
growth. We disposed of the gold watches which 
we had brought with us from the East, that the 
mason might be paid for laying the walls; and, in 
older to facilitate the work, we bought him a 
span of horses, giving our notes for them, and we — 
that is, Major Bovay, J. Bowen, D. F. Shephard, 
myself, and others, — had to pay them ; but we 
had said it should be built, and it was. 

''In 1845 settlements were made in various 
parts of the town, and nearly all the lands en- 
tered. The Phalanx increased their numbers and 
enlarged their capital ; they had about two thous- 
and acres of choice land: in 1847 they built a 
flouring mill, and raised nearly twenty thousand 
bushels of wheat from a field of four hundred 
acres; in 1850 they surveyed the villlage plat 
into lots twelve rods square, with streets six rods 
wide. They continued in association for six years 



72 HISTORY OF THE 

with great pecuniary success ; there was no litiga- 
tion in which a member of the company was a 
party, no intoxicating liquors were brought into 
the place, and their health was so uniform that 
during those six years no one had occasion to call 
a physician; yet the want of social adhesion led 
them, in 1850, to divide their stock and assume 
their individual claims, and this they amicably 
adjusted among themselves. Most of the original 
company still reside upon the same premises, and 
peace and harmony still exists among them. 

" Ceresco is decidedly a rural village. Twenty- 
three of the inhabitants have village homesteads 
of from two to ten acres each, which are well sup- 
plied with choice varieties of fruit trees; three 
of them having over five hundred each. There 
are also several extensive nurseries. The village 
is located in a valley of about one hundred acres, 
with Silver Creek upon the east and a high bluff 
on the west. On the opposite side of the creek 
the land rises, presenting a beautiful hillside 
prairie, and on this hillside, a little below the vil- 
lage, is a circle of mounds some sixty or seventy 
rods in diameter, many of which are elevated four 
or five feet above the common level, while others 
have been wasted by elemental action until they 



CITY OF KIPON. 73 

are but slightly visible. They are from twenty to 
thirty feet in diameter, of circular form, and from 
two to twenty rods from each other. Near the 
southeast part of this circle a semi-circle of similar 
mounds commences, stretching in a southerly direc- 
tion, then curving towards the creek, until the line 
of the arch is half a mile in length. Similar 
mounds are also in the village, some still remaining 
prominent while others have been levelled in cul- 
tivating the soil. Near these have been found 
many pieces of iron tube, closely bound over with 
wire and coated with copper. These tubes are 
about half an inch in diameter, varying from 
a few inches to three feet in length, and have 
apparently been encased in red cedar wood, which 
is so decomposed that it crumbles to dust upon 
being exposed to the air. They are found a few 
feet below the surface; one, now in my possession, 
was found by Mr. Gerritt H. Baker, while plowing 
his garden very deeply. For what purpose they 
were used, when, and by whom, are questions 
which may furnish contemplation for the curious. 
"About half a mile south of the village there are 
several fine falls in the creek, affording superior 
privileges for manufacturing purposes; but a 
quarter-section including this water-power had 
10 



74 HISTORY OF THE 

been secured by the rapacity of speculators, put- 
ting industry at defiance until 1850, when Captain 
D. P. Mapes succeeded in negotiating with J. S. 
Horner for this location. Up to this time there 
was no finger-mark of improvement upon the face 
of nature in this neighborhood; Mr. Mapes, a man 
of energy, now set about building a village, sur- 
veyed a plat, gave away lots on condition that 
certain improvements should be made, built a 
large public house called the Ripon House, com- 
menced and nearly finished the extensive Ripon 
flouring mill, and made ample preparations for 
large improvements the next year. In 1851, the 
flouring mill was completed, a cabinet and chair 
factory put in operation, and a woolen factory by 
Mr. S. Ford, and dwelling houses, stores and me- 
chanic shops sprung up with rapidity. 

"In the first year of the the existence of the vil- 
lage a charter for the location of a college was 
also obtained, on condition that it be located 
here. Towards the close of the year in a gentle 
snow storm, two men might have been seen staking 
out the location for the first college building, 
amidst the half -sup pressed jeers of the faithless. 
But deep down in the heart of these two knit- 
browed men the finger of determination was writ- 



CITY OF RIPON. 75 

ing, "it shall be done." The novelty, the boldness 
and utility of the enterprise, the unequalled beauty 
of the location, all united to attract the sympathy 
and munificence of the surrounding country, like 
moistening dew, to cheer on the work. The enter- 
prise succeeded beyond the most sanguine antici- 
pations of its most earnest friends. 

u On the west side of the village of Ripon is a 
conical elevation of about ten acres of land, the 
ascent is nearly equal on all sides, except that 
fronting the main part of the village, which is 
somewhat less obtuse and presents an aspect a 
trifle bolder. This eminence is covered with 
shrubs and underwood, with occasional shadowy 
oaks, which thicken as you go westward and, at 
the distance of twenty-five or thirty rods, mingle 
with the thick growth of forest trees which 
spreads over about two hundred acres. The apex 
of this elevation is nearly circular; it is about one 
hundred yards in diameter, is smooth and level, 
and is elevated about thirty feet- above the sur- 
rounding country. Upon the center of the apex, 
and upon the very spot staked out by those two 
grim, determined men in the snow-storm, stands 
Brock way College, a beautiful stone edifice pre- 
senting its four equal fronts to the four cardinal 



76 HISTORY OF THE 

points of the compass. Upon all sides Green 
Lake prairie spreads its rich, rolling surface like 
a boundless garden, checkered, striped and dotted 
with little groves of underwood and oak openings, 
and its streams fringed with forest trees. The 
vision of the traveler, as be approaches Ripon 
from any direction, will have a full view of Brock- 
way College at a distance varying from six to 
eight miles. If the liveliest imagination could be 
clothed with creative power, and give form, sub- 
stance and vitality to its most brilliant paintings, 
it could only mar the divine beauty with which 
the Almighty Builder has crowned this spot for a 
public edifice, a city of light set on a hill. The 
college lands include the whole of the ten acres. 

"The traveller, passing westward, soon finds him- 
self in a beautiful grove of sugar maple and other 
forest trees, the declivity increasing until it ab- 
ruptly terminates in a deep ravine, through which, 
over a stony bed, flows a stream of fine cold water 
which gushes from a spring under a ledge of sand- 
stone which is overlaid with a quarry of limestone 
some fifteen to twenty feet in thickness. Ascend- 
ing the rugged bank and continuing westward for 
about half a mile, gradually rising through the 
heavy timber forest, you again behold before you 



CITY OF KIPON. 77 

the open prairie in all the beauty and fertility 
which the most romantic mind attaches to the pri- 
meval garden. 

"Brockway College was opened for academic 
studies, in the female department, on June 1st, 
1853, under the superintendence of Miss M. J. 
Adams, with about twenty students. On the first 
of September, Mr. Martin opened and superin- 
tended the male department for one month, when 
Rev. J. Walcott, Superintendent of the Institute, 
arrived and assumed his position over the various 
departments. Mr. W. is a finished scholar, an 
able instructor, amiable in character and affable in 
manner, and is highly esteemed by all who know 
him. In the first term there were three assistant 
professors and eighty students. It is now in its 
second term, with prospects entirely satisfactory; 
and although no collegiate department has yet 
been opened, there is entire confidence that the 
institution will be endowed and prepared to enter 
that sphere of usefulness as soon as the necessities 
of the students will require it. 

U A short distance west of the villages of Ripon 
and Ceresco, runs a high bluff with frequent out- 
croppings of limestone, which furnish abundant 
opportunities for quarrying first-rate stone for 



78 HISTORY OF THE 

building or burning into lime. The layers of 
limestone extend to a depth of fifteen or twenty 
feet and are underlaid with sandstone, which 
in many places is in a state of decomposition and 
furnishes excellent sand for mortar. There is also 
near by an abundance of superior clay for brick. 
Material for building purposes, of the very best 
quality, is easy of access to these villages, which 
are in reality but one ; both are on the same 
stream, which furnishes numerous water-powers in 
less than half a mile; in the same town, separated 
only by a space of about one hundred rods; and 
both being good building-sites, with one common 
interest, they in fact are and should be considered 
but one village. 

" Ever since the commencement of the village of 
Ripon the enterprise has been attended with con- 
siderable success. Merchants, mechanics, manu- 
facturers, as well as the surrounding agriculturists, 
have not only met no revulsion, but the success of 
each year has added momentum to the next; the 
only lack is an increase of laborers and capital to 
meet the increasing demand. The surrounding 
advantages of this place are such that it must con- 
tinue to increase until it becomes a city of sub- 
stantial importance. Taking this point for the 



CITY OF RIPON. 79 

center of a circle thirty miles in diameter, and a 
more fertile soil with less ease of cultivation and 
with equal healthfulness among the inhabitants 
may be sought for in vain upon the earth. The 
above territory seems to have been designed by its 
Maker for one great seed-field, a perennial granary, 
sufficient for a large city." 

We have frequently to speak of one Warren 
Chase who took a part in the politics of the 
State. He was a man of some ability, was 
a member of the first State Convention; and assisted 
in framing our first constitution, but after the dis- 
solution of the Fourier Clan he was charged with 
aiding in the intioduction of the system of free 
love and spiritualism which flourished in the 
valley for a brief period. He also published a 
book called "The Life-line of the Lone One," and 
in that work he makes frequent mention of me as 
the Captain, and of the fact that he always came 
out ahead of me. How far that has proved true, 
let the public judge from our works. I had laid 
out my town of Ripon along side of his Ceresco, 
laying out the streets at the four cardinal points 
of the compass, running them north and south 
and east and west, and had placed the same on 
record, but the Association, having a majority in 



80 HISTORY OF THE 

the town, ran a street diagonally across my town 
plat, making pointed lots and otherwise inconveni- 
encing me, yet my town must go on, so I suited 
my grounds to this road, and to-day the triangular 
building known as the Green way and Salsbury 
Block, together with the Masonic Temple, serve 
as monuments to their spite and malice, for they 
were determined to drive all settlements from 
the township, except such as would join their clan. 
I had another difficulty with them when I 
attempted to remove the post office to Ripon. 
They had located it in the valley below, and called 
it Ceresco, as they did the whole township, but, 
after a trip to Washington and Madison, I suc- 
ceeded in changing its name and removing it 
to the hill above, where it has remained to this 
day. 

After free love and spiritualism had had its day 
in the valley below, and the town of Ripon had 
taken her place among the prosperous towns of 
Wisconsin, and the free love element had left for 
a more congenial clime, a few of the best members 
of that society took part with Ripon, and most of 
them are now good citizens, still their clanning 
propensity occasionally breaks out and a few think 
that they must give fight to the Captain, as Chase 



CITY OF RIPON. 81 

called me. This Chase is heard from, now and 
then; he is traveling through the States, delivering 
lectures and selling his book. 

Once, while traveling through Iowa by stage, 
we stopped at a public house for dinner, and, 
while awaiting its preparation, I discovered a 
copy of Chase's work upon a table in the parlor. I 
asked the landlady where she got it, and she said 
that while her husband was in Boston he had 
heard the author deliver a lecture on spiritualism, 
and bought the book from him. I told the land- 
lady, who was then busily serving my dinner, that 
I would turn down a leaf in that portion of the 
work in which the author spoke of me, and, 
when I had gone away, she conld look and see 
who she had to dinner. I was then informed that 
dinner was ready, and repaired to the dining-room. 
But the landlady could not wait until I had 
departed, for while I was still eating she slipped 
into the parlor and examined the book, and when 
she was called to fill my second cup of tea, she 
was so flurried that she said, " Captain Mapes, did 
you take cream in your first cup?" "Ye, 1 .," I 
answered, "and you have made my acquaintance, 
for you did not know that my name was Captain 
Mapes until you had looked into the book ; but I 
11 



82 HISTORY OF THE 

pardon you, for I knew woman's curiosity, and 
thought you could not wait till I had gone before 
knowing who your guest was So let us be 
acquainted." This made a very pleasant little 
interview out on one of the broad prairies of 
Iowa. 



CITY OF EIPON. 83 



CHAPTER V. 

CERESCO. 

The following extract from a Ripon paper of 
April 11th, 1873, is the same as before written, 
but is told by a different witness, Everett Cham- 
berlin, with whom I have not the pleasure of an 
acquaintance, yet as he appears to be aiming at 
the truth of the history, I here insert it: 

"The visitor at the beautiful city of Ripon, 
Wisconsin, almost invariably takes a walk or drive 
around bv the ruins — less picturesque than preg- 
nant in meaning — of the deserted Ceresco. 

" Tt is not a barren waste — by no means. Such 
a thing could not be in a spot so favored by 
nature, and so contiguous to such thrift and enter- 
prise as abound in all this neighborhood. But 
still there is a story slumbering in the nooks and 
crannies of the few abandoned buildings which 
piques the curiosity of the spectator and sets him to 
inquiring, ' why all this is thus ? ' This inquiry it 
it is the purpose of this article briefly to answer. 



84 HISTORY OF THE 

"The history of 'The Wisconsin Phalanx' has 
been told several times, but never completely — the 
sequence of events being broken off at one* end or 
the other in all the accounts now extant Of 
these the fullest is that contained in J. H. Noyes' 
'History of American Socialisms;' but this, 
though full in details of earlier events, is deficient 
in those which pertain to the closing up of the 
concern and to the causes which led to the disso- 
lution. 

"There have been forty-five noticeable experi- 
ments in founding non-religious communities in 
the United States since Owens commenced his agi- 
tation, late in the first quarter of the century. Of 
these the most important — i. <?., those cairied out 
on the largest scale and with the most persistent 
expendituie of money — were the New Harmony 
colony, of Indiana, and the North American Pha- 
lanx, of New Jersey; but none of the forty-five — 
certainly none at the West — came so near succeed, 
ing as did the Wisconsin Phalanx. This is why it 
is profitable to refer to the enterprise, now that it 
is no longer a current event, and examine into its 
workings. 

"The agitation of Fourier's theories of society 
began in America in 1838, Albert Brisbane being 



CITY OF R1PON. 85 

tho chief expounder. In 1841 and 1846 a ma- 
jority of all the colonies or communities; organized 
according to Fourier's plan, had their origin — yes, 
and their end, too, for the matter. The Wisconsin 
Phalanx dates its inception to the winter of 
1843-4, and the village and vicinity of Southport 
(now Kenosha), Wisconsin, was its birthplace. A 
few families living there, on the primeval prairies, 
became sufficiently imbued with the French philos- 
opher's theories of life and social organization to 
forsake what then promised to be as much of a 
lake port as Chicago or Milwaukee, and push out 
into a still wilder country, in pursuit of the ideal 
mode of life. 

"They set out on the 20th of May, 1844, and in 
just one week they arrived at the spot which had 
been selected and pre-empted by a pioneer com- 
mittee. They were as good material, probably, as 
was ever got together for one of these experiments. 
They do not appear to have belonged, even in 
part, to the class of ' the unappreciated, the played- 
out, the idle, and the good-for-nothing, generally,' 
who, according to Horace Greeley, composed the 
communities which failed under his eye. On the 
contrary, they were persons whose industry and 
general shrewdness had already been coined into a 



86 HISTORY OF THE 

goodly equipment of live stock, farm materials, 
implements, money and other necessaries for fitting 
out the new enterprise. What was better, they 
had all, as Western pioneers, undergone that train- 
ing in hard work and privation which fortified 
them against discontent and home-sickness, the 
bane of other communistic colonies. They were 
rather religious than irreligious, and among them 
were two who had standing as preachers in evan- 
gelical denominations. Rather a surplus in so 
small a community it would seem, and the ques- 
tion may arise whether we have not, in these 
prophets, the Jonahs who are to weigh down the 
ship below the water's edge, It appears, however, 
from the contemporaneous accounts, that there 
was nothing like religious bigotry visible in the 
community during its early career; that, on the 
contrary, everybody was liberal, and the theologi- 
cal sky seiene. 

"It was for its financial and material success, 
however, that the Wisconsin Phalanx presently 
became distinguished. The colony, as already 
indicated, arrived at its new possessions on the 
27th of May. The domain (specify term in 
Fourier's cant) had already been selected, embrac- 
ing six hundred acres of arable prairie, fertile in 



CITY OF RIPON. 87 

soil, delightful in situation, and watered by a 
stream which afforded ample power for the pro- 
pulsion of a mill's machinery. The colonists gave 
their settlement the name of Ceresco — doubtless 
founded on the name of Ceres, the protectress of 
agriculture, with a syllable added at random for 
euphony. The name always had a taking sound 
about it, and helped give the town a striking indi- 
viduality. 

"Arrived at the site of their new empire, the 
first task of these socialistic pilgrims was to stake 
out the domain; after which some religious exer- 
cises were held — a prayer at least, and a homily 
by one of the members concerning their duty 
toward one another. The working force on the 
first day numbered nineteen men, one boy, eight 
yoke of oxen, and thirty-four horses. The colony 
had in all fifty -four head of cattle. The first task 
was, of course, to get in the crops as soon as pos- 
sible, the season being already far advanced. 
Twenty acres of potatoes, buckwheat, turnips, 
etc., were planted, and in due time harvested; a 
saw mill was built, and with the lumber which it 
produced a large hotel, or 'unitary dwelling,' was 
inclosed but not finished; one hundred acres of 
winter wheat were sown, and this constituted the 



88 HISTORY OF THE 

work of the first year. It shows that the com- 
munity was not only industrious, but well organ- 
ized and intelligently directed. Warren Chase 
was their leader, not only during this season but 
afterwards. The association had a constitution, 
and was governed by some of Fourier's formulae; 
for instance, the workmen were arranged in three 
series, agricultural, mechanical, and educational; 
and the series were in turn divided into groups. 
There was also a faithful attempt to carry out the 
complicated plan of Fourier with regard to the 
personal credits, and the equalization of labor by 
reducing all to what was called 'the class of use- 
fulness.' Under this arrangement, some of the 
more skillf ul workmen were able to score as many 
as twenty -five hours' labor in the day — a paiadox 
in time-keeping which was exceedingly amusing 
to the skillful ones, and correspondingly perplex- 
ing to the unskillful, since everybody drew stock 
or cash on settlement day in proportion to his 
credit on the daily record. 

"At the end of the second season the Phalanx 
had increased its membership to thirty families, 
and its property to twenty-seven thousand seven 
hundred and twenty-five dollars and twenty-two 
cents; had harvested one hundred acres of wheat, 



CITY OF EIPON. 89 

sixty acres of corn, fifty -seven acres of oats, and 
other crops in proportion; put in four hundred 
acres of winter wheat; dug a race and laid foun- 
dations for a grist mill, built a stone school house, 
etc.; performing in all one hundred and two 
thousand seven hundred and sixty hours' labor. 
Yet President Warren Chase's policy was by no 
means the all-work-and-no-play, which is said to 
make Jack a dull boy. His annual report, dated 
December 1st, 1845, says 'that many have culti- 
vated vocal and instrumental music; and not only 
that, but our young ladies and gentlemen have 
occasionally engaged in cotillions, especially on 
wedding occasions, of which we have had three 
the past summer.' 

"These were evidently golden days in Ceresco — ■ 
a surmise not only justified by the facts already 
cited, but by the testimony of those who lived or 
visited with the Phalanx during the crescent 
period. Men and women worked with an electri- 
cal zest born of enthusiasm for a newly-espoused 
cause and the holiday novelty of all the surround- 
ings. Under sound direction their labor was 
fruitful, and this in turn stimulated to new exer- 
tion. Few or no tares sprang up in the social 
garden. The annual report, already referred to, 
12 



90 HISTORY OF THE 

rejoices that 'the four great evils with which the 
world is afflicted — intoxication, law suits, quarrel- 
ing and profane swearing — never have, and with 
the present character and prevailing habit of our 
members, never can find admittance into society. 
There is but a very small proportion of the tat- 
tling, backbiting and criticisms on character usu- 
ally found in the neighborhoods of so many fami- 
lies. Perfect harmony and concert of action pre- 
vail.' What could be more delightful than this, 
especially when it was combined with material 
prosperity, and unencumbered by debt? What 
wonder that the Phalanx was overrun during the 
winter and early spring with applications for ad- 
mission to membership, albeit not one in five was 
admitted? 

"The material prosperity continued — indeed, 
increased; for during 1846 the Phalanx not only 
raised eight hundred acres of crops (one item of 
which was twenty thousand bushels of wheat), 
but played the profitable vole of manufacturers 
for the rapidly settling comm unity around them. 
It is a fact worthy of notice that through the co- 
operation of labor within the community, the cost 
of good board at the palanstery was reduced to 
sixty-three cents per week — that being the average 



CITY OF RIPON. 91 

cost during the year 1845. It is also worthy of 
notice fehat, notwithstanding this great economy, 
the number of families who patronized the com- 
mon table became less and less, until, in 1848, 
every family of them kept its own table. 

"In fact it became quite perceptible, early in 
1848, that the Phalanx was no longer a phalanx. 
It was dropping apart, gradually but surely. In 
the first place, the high moral tension which had 
produced that beautifully harmonious state of 
feeling described in the extract above cited from 
the second annual report, seems to have been a 
relaxed. It appears to have been a condition 
which human nature is not able to bear continu- 
ously for a very long time. To the 'perfect har- 
mony and concert of action' which were reported 
to prevail at first, succeeded a period of dull inac- 
tion of the moral functions of the community, 
which did not even feel equal to the task of pro- 
viding proper education for the children: and this 
was never done. After lassitude and indifference 
in moral and religious matters, came an alarming 
readiness on the part of some to imbibe all new 
notions which the period developed. Free love 
became rampant in certain sections of the country 5 
and a pair of its apostles came to Ceresco and 



92 HISTORY OF THE 

preached, with very little reserve, their unwhole 
some doctrines. Spiritualism came next, and 
Chase became a convert to it. He was deposed 
from the Presidency in 1847, and was succeeded 
by Benjamin Wright, a more conservative man 
Chase continued to labor for the Phalanx, how- 
ever, and early in 1848 he published in the Har- 
binger, at New Yoi'k, eighteen excellent reasons 
why all the associationists in the country should 
rally and unite their efforts upon Ceresco, and in- 
sure its success as the test experiment of all. 

"They did not rally, however. On the contrary, 
while some of the Harmonists were bickering over 
little questions of detail, and gradually losing 
sight of the stupendous plan of their great apos- 
tle ; while their local leader was putting off for a 
whole decade the time for their entering upon the 
first stage of their perfect career; while the more 
strong-headed or light-headed of the band were 
alarming the more moderate ones by the boldness 
of their theories and proposed practices; while 
the sordid element in the bosoms of all was being 
quickened by the worldly prosperity of the asso- 
ciation ; while all this is going on, the Goths and 
Vandals of what Fourier would call the civilized 
world, were gathering about and insidiously com- 



CITY OF RIPON. 93 

passing the ruin of Ceresco. A settlement had 
been made on the hill to the east of the colony, 
and, in the year 1849, Colonel Mapes, the pioneer 
and proprietor of the new town, swooped down 
upon that peaceful village — loveliest of the plain — 
with a postmasters' commission from President 
Taylor in his pocket, and bore away the mail-bags 
and other insignia of office theretofore pertaining 
to the Phalanx. From that hour the prestige of 
Ceresco was gone — the more especially as Ripon 
also offered flouring facilities, and other attrac- 
tions, for the trade of the surrounding country. 

"Notwithstanding all this, the colony might have 
flourished as producers and special manufacturers 
like the Shakers and Oneidans of the east, had all 
been well within their own ranks. That all was 
not well, we have already seen. To cap all, Chase 
himself, carried away by his new notions, managed 
by his own adventures, to bring some scandal upon 
the association ; an indignation meeting was held 
at Ripon, and delenda ''est Ceresco became the watch- 
word — whether inspired more by local than moral 
considerations, the writer cannot say. No specific 
allegations are now made which go to hint — still 
less to prove — that there was any more immorali- 
ty in the social intercourse at the colony, than in 



94 HISTOKY OF THE 

any other community of like numbers. Indeed, it 
was undoubtedly less open to such charges than 
the average western community. Nevertheless, 
there was enough to found an outcry upon, and 
the outcry was raised with vigor. 

"The annual report of the Phalanx for 1848, 
showed a falling oft of seventy-two in member- 
ship since the previous year, when it had been 
one hundred and ninety-two; by the end of 1849 
the dissolution of the corporation was fully re- 
solved upon, and the members only waited for 
legal authority from the State before proceeding 
to disband. This was given in the spring of 1850, 
and in April of that year, the property was sold 
and distributed. It had been well husbanded 
through all, and yielded nearly $40,000. The 
members for the most part, remained in the 
vicinity — many of them on the old grounds. 
Several of them have occupied with credit, promi- 
nent places in the State Legislature and govern- 
ment of Wisconsin. Warren Chase has become 
a leading itinerant lecturer on spiritualism, with 
headquarters — and a bookstore — in St. Louis. 

" Chroniclers have been at a loss to find a cause 
for the failure of a scheme of association so 
successful in outward seeming as the Ceresco 



CITY OF RIPON. 95 

colony was. Human nature as the rock on which 
this fine ship split just as did all other similar 
argosies bearing the banner of Owen or Fourier. 
In one case — as at Sylvania — it will appear to be 
adversity; in another — as at Ceresco — prosperity 
—which shatters the timbers of the ventursome 
craft. In either case, however, the cause is .the 
same, viz : the refusal of Human Nature to be 
dredged or blasted away from its place in the Sea 
of Life by anybody's patent apparatus. The old 
rock is i ight there, where it always was — good to 
anchor to, but bad to run against. 

"The history of Ceresco undoubtedly demon- 
strated more clearly — because the experiment was 
more skillfully made — than that of any other 
socialistic enterprise, the fact that association on 
Fourier's plan — which is a great improvement 
upon Owen's — is impracticable when either self- 
interest or general humanitarian interest, is the 
principal motive of the associators. Nothing 
short of religious fanaticism furnishes a cement 
sufficiently strong to bind a community of the 
kind permanently together. 



96 HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VI 

FIRST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

And now a word for the Church. You will see 
by tUe following note from the good old Bishop 
Kemper, how we became possessed of a fine Epis. 
copal Church at Ripon: 

"Delafield, Wis., Sept. 14, 1859. 
"My Dear Sir: 

"My excellent friend, Mr. Durlin, will 
spend next Sunday at Ripon. Please make ar- 
rangements so that he can officiate twice. I hope 
you will be able to secure him as a settled minis- 
ter, for I have the highest opinion of his zeal, 
piety and talents. 

"Yours very truly, 

"Jackson Kemper. 
"Mr. Mapes, Ripon, Wis." 

The following is an introductory note from the 
Rev. J. P. S. Ingraham: 

"Milwaukee, Sept. 16, 1859. 
"My Dear Sir: 

"It gives me pleasure to introduce to 



CITY OF RIPON. 97 

your acquaintance as the pioneer and founder of 
Ripon, and a good friend of the Church, the Rev. 
F. Durlin of La Crosse. Mr. Durlin is traveling 
through your section with our good Bishop, and I 
most sincerely hope that you will all use your 
influence to induce Mr. Durlin to make Ripon his 
permanent home. I would not say this, did I not 
believe Mr. D. to be a man most desirable for the 
work of the Church in your section. Please exert 
your influence to secure him. Extend to him your 
usual courtesy to strangers, and you will oblige, 
"Very truly your friend, 

"J. P. T. Ingraham. 

"Capt. Mapes, Berlin, Wis." 

The Rev. Mr. Durlin came and most fully car- 
ried out the recommendation given by the good 
old Bishop and Rev. Mr. Ingraham : he never 
delivered a sermon after he settled with us to 
which I was not a careful listenei, if in town, for 
I have never heard a man in the sacred desk who 
filled it as well, according to my views of the pro- 
fession. He appeared beyond the reach of flat- 
tery, but I found an avenue to him in this man- 
ner : Upon the occasion of his first sermon, when 
sent by the Bishop, he preached in the Baptist 
Church, which had kindly been been placed at his 
13 



98 HISTORY OF THE 

disposal for that occasioo. After the services 
were concluded, I remarked, "Well. Mr. Durlin, 
by this sermon you have got us into business." 
Looking up at me for an explanation, he said, 
"Why, what is the trouble V "Why," I replied, 
"this sermon will compel us to build a church." 
I had struck the right chord. He had been labor- 
ing at La Crosse for two years, but could not 
move the people to build a church, and this was 
what he had set his heart on, and my remark gave 
hope that he might here accomplish his favorite 
theme. I had forgotten this incident until after 
the church had prospered four years, when Mr. D. 
recalled it again to memory, and said that he had 
never forgotten my words upon that occasion. I 
then saw where I had reached him. 

After I had started farming, I went back to the 
Hudson to bring my mute brother to my home in 
the West, for my sister had written that he was 
very unhappy ; but when he heard that I was 
going to take him with me, he was the happiest 
man 1 ever saw. I gave him to understand that 
he and I were joint partners, and all of the prop- 
erty was ours. He would work with interest, for 
his father had taught him habits of industry, and 
he was always unhappy when he had nothing to 



CITY OF RIPON. 99 

do. Here, again, let me proffer a little more 
advice: Parents,' teach your children habits of 
industry, for it is the best thing you can do for 
them. I had proof of this in my mute brother, 
who, before he came to live with me, never had 
the stimulous of accumulating property, but was 
put to a trade when young, and had kept to work 
always and had become habituated to it. After 
he came to live with me, I added the stimulus of 
acquiring property, and he was the most indus- 
trious man I ever saw I have found that animal 
man is lazy, the proof of which we have in the 
native Indian; he will not work, he has no habits 
of industry, and no pride of accumulation of 
property. So. parents, teach your children to 
work if you would not have them lazy Indians— 
or, what is worse, white trash,- -with all of the 
white man's bad habits. Idleness is the parent of 
all vices. I look back and say thanks, many 
thanks to my father for teaching me to be indus- 
ti ious, for in whatever, position fortune has placed 
me labor has been no toil. You never can appre- 
ciate the luxury of resting if you are never tired. 
In building the first shanty to winter in, I had 
struck but few blows with the axe before it 
glanced and cut a bad gash in my foot. I re- 

LofC. 



100 HISTORY OF THE 

marked to Dr. Spalding, who was with me, that I 
was in a bad fix, for my wife, who always kept 
some healing salve, was in Racine, one hundred 
and twenty miles distant. The Doctor laughed at 
my faith in my wife and her salve, and said that 
there were no healing properties in salve, but that 
he had a needle and white silk and would sew it 
up and bring the parts together, and nature would 
do the rest of the work. He did so with good 
effect, and this was the first intimation I had but 
that medicines possessed healing properties, not- 
withstanding I had, many years before, attempted 
to study medicine, but left it in disgust with my 
tin trunk of essence. 

This brings me and my family out upon the 
bleak prairie of Green Lake, but I had spent the 
first winter, with my youngest son, upon those 
Green Lake borders, having left the remainder of 
my family at Racine while we prepared a dwelling 
for them. This first winter had its hardships and 
its pleasures. Doctor Spalding and myself and 
son, built a log shanty to winter in, and got out 
lumber for a better building m the spring. As 
the Doctor's land adjoined ours, we worked to- 
gether, boarded in the same shanty, washed our 
own dishes, and went, with Sat Clark, the Dakins, 



CITY OF RIPON. 101 

and other of the first settlers, to all the parties for 
miles around, for it took miles of population to 
make up a party, for the settlers were few and far 
between. 

We had built our house in that beautiful grove 
east of what is now Ripon, but that spot has had 
many owners since, among them Mr. Bentley, of 
hotel fame in Milwaukee. Around this grove we 
entered our lands and commenced farming, and, 
as f have heretofore mentioned, our first crop con- 
sisted of seven thousand bushels. We continued 
farming upon this lovely spot from 1845 to 1849. 
We had a partner in our lands in the person of 
Captain Lathrop, late of the Mansion House, 
Albany, New York, and when he came on with his 
family we divided the two sections of land that 
we had entered together; Silver Creek or Green 
Lake Inlet ran through the middle of the tract, 
and I took the south side, and he the north with 
the house and grove spoken of, consequently I had 
to build a house on my section, and, as I had no 
grove, I erected it by the side of a beautiful spring 
which gushed out of the dry prairie,, on the spot 
now known as the Thomas Farm, half a mile east 
of the city of Ripon. My second house looked 
as though it was out at sea; not a tree, shrub or 



102 HISTORY OF THE 

plant grew near it, consequently it could be seen 
for a great distance, and became the stopping-placH 
for all new comers seeking homes, for at that time 
every one who owned a house, be it ever so hum- 
ble, had to be a tavern-keeper. A peddler once 
came to my door and said, " What are you sjoing 
to do out on this bleak prairie? Are you not 
afraid of blowing away?" "No," I replied, "the 
wind does not blow as hard here as in the valley ; 
there the wind is forced through a narrow chan- 
nel, here it has a chance to spread out." " Spread 
out!" cried he, "you can not make me swallow 
that." It was new philosophy to him, but it was 
the best reason I could give. A splendid brick 
house now standi upon that spot, and fruit trees 
and ornamental shrubbery serve as barriers against 
the wind. 

The early settler has many a story to tell of pri- 
vations and hardships endured, but to me it was a 
round of pleasure. Here we had our fields cleared, 
stumps out, and meadows leady to cut. The yield 
per acre was so great that we felt amply repaid 
for our trouble, but we soon had to submit to 
lower pi ices for our crops, for the soil was so pro- 
ductive that we all had a surplus, which had to be 
taken a great distance by teams to market As 



CITY OF RIPON. 103 

we liad no railroads then, and as the Fox River 
was unimproved, we depended principally upon 
selling to new comers, 

About the time of starting for Green Lake, or 
Ripon, as it is now called, I had become acquainted 
with Mr. Farwell, who was afterwards elected 
Governor, and he thought of joining me in build- 
ing a town somewhere in the vicinity of Ripon, 
and promised to come up from Milwaukee, where 
he was a hardware merchant, and see the spot 
which I had chosen. So on a cold winter day 
when the snow lay deep, he drove up to the door 
of our shanty and hailed us, but got no response, 
as we were in the woods hewing timber for the 
buildings which we intended to erect in the spring. 
The Governor was accompanied by a friend nQiUi&d 
named Richardson, whom he had brought to start 
the first store, and, having come a great distance 
without refreshment, they wanted their dinner, 
but the hospitable string to the door was not to 
be seen, so they shouted to the top of their voices, 
but without avail. They then searched for the 
hidden latch-string, which, through Dr. Spalding's 
ingenuity had been made so long that it reached 
to the top of the door, and, passing out, displayed 
but a knot, by which the latch was lifted; this the 



104 HISTORY OF THE 

Governor discovered by looking through our small 
glass window, and a close scrutiny revealed the 
knot, which they lost no time in pulling, and, open 
sesame, the door ifew open. They found the table 
spread with our intended supper, and their appe- 
tites had been sharpened to such an extent that 
they left very little of it for us. They ] eft a card 
acknowledging the receipt of a good dinner, for 
which they returned thanks, stating that they had 
gone to stay over night with the Phalanx, and ask- 
ing us, upon our return from the woods, to come 
down and see them. We were well pleased with 
the card, notwithstanding that, hungry as we 
were, we had to wait until we had cooked another 
supper. After a hearty meal we went over to the 
Phalanx and had a good laugh over their visit. 
In the morning 1 took the Governor and his friend 
to where the city of Kipon now stands and showed 
them where I proposed to build the city. The 
snow was two feet deep with a heavy crust which 
would break at every step, and I saw that the site 
looked dreary to the Governor, for it was one 
hundred miles west of Milwaukee, with few settle- 
ments between, still they promised to write to me 
should they conclude to assist in building. They 
returned to Watertown where they aided in the 



CITY OP RIPON. 105 

erection of the Planters' Hotel, and that, they 
thought, was as much as they would do in city 
building. But the Governor had an ambition in 
that line, which he cured many years afterwards 
by helping to build up the city of Madison, for 
judging from my own experience, I fear it did not 
prove very remunerative to him. But, oh ! there 
is a glory in doing so much for the public, when 
they are so full of gratitude, for after the founders 
of their cities are gathered to their fathers, they 
may, in a stretch of veneration, help to make re- 
spectable processions to their graves, which a good 
Irish Catholic thinks is of some account, for when 
he drinks the health of a friend, he says, "Long 
life to you, and may your funeral be well at- 
tended." But why grumble at the public, they 
did not set us to work, we did it for the reason 
that we loved to do it. Yes, I have had pretty 
good pay as I have gone through life in working 
for the public, aimiug to pay one hundred cents to 
the dollar, and to do good to the generation in 
which I lived. 

I have taken great pleasure in giving young 
men, whose parents could illy afford to aid them, 
a start in life. I will here make honorable men- 
tion of their names, some of them have fallen 
14 



106 HISTORY OF THE 

asleep, and others are still living: At Roxbury, 
New York, I had the first opportunity of aiding 
young men, and took two brothers, named Calvin 
and Asa Eaton, to live with me; they came to 
manhood under my instruction and patronage, and 
they well deserved all I had done for them, foi 
better men never lived. Here I also started 
Dubois Burhans, who afterwards represented the 
county in the Legislature, and became a good 
business man; he has gone to the other side of the 
river. Many others have taken their business 
notions from me, and among them one J. Gould, 
who has made his mark m the woild. While at 
Carbondale, Pennsylvania, I had the training and 
starting of J. B, Barlow, Jedediah Bowen, Stewart 
Barber, the two young Rexfords, and others, and 
all have acquitted themselves right well; most of 
them are alive at the present writing, and show 
a work of which I am not ashamed; of them I 
would say more, but modesty forbids as most of 
them still live, and, I hope, continue to be an 
honor to themselves and to me God speed them. 
After a while, m 1854, I find myself elected a 
member of the Board of Supervisors from the 
town of Ceresco, now Ripon, and on meeting with 
the Board at Fond du Lac, every town being rep- 



CITY OF EIPON. 107 

resented, I found they were all strangers to me. 
Upon the ballot for chairman I received every 
vote but my own, and I had cast a blank in order 
to ascertain who was the most capable member. 
The Board was composed of Democrats and 
Whigs, and I was elected to preside over them 
without preference to party, but I found my 
account in it, for when I wanted the post office 
removed from Ceresco to Ripon the Whigs were 
in power, and I, being a Democrat, wanted their 
assistance and then found them my friends owing 
to my liberal course in the Board of Supervisors. 
I have ever found that it costs nothing to be civil 
in our intercourse with the world. We succeeded 
in having our man appointed postmaster, and the 
post office was removed, and its name changed, 
from Ceresco to Ripon. But the Fouriers came 
down gracefully ; they formed a funeral procession 
and marched from Ceresco to Ripon with the post 
office effects, thereby turning it into a good joke 
on Ceresco. While speaking of the post office, I 
will continue its history still further. Time 
rolled on and, after four years, brought another 
change in politics, and the Democrats again came 
into power. Ceresco then hoped to regain the 
post office, and William Starr, who had been dis- 



10? HISTORY OF THE 

placed for the Whig Lathrop, exerted himself to 
be reinstated, but your humble writer was also a 
Democrat and put in his claim, and the race for 
the Office commenced with Starr and Mapes as 
contestants. Both claimed to be Democrats, and 
as the incoming administration of Pierce had the 
distribution of the patronage, — to us, who were 
starting rival towns, the post office was of great 
importance,— Mr. Starr started for Washington 
by way of Madison, where the Legislature was in 
session, in order to get the signatures of the Dem- 
cratic members to his petition, while I started for 
the same place by way of the United States Sen- 
ators and Congressmen, whom I had found to be 
the "friends at court" that I needed. I had 
also the friendship of the Assistant Postmaster 
General, Major S. R. Hobbie, whom I had helped 
get to Congress several years before. I had the 
signatures of both Senators Dodge and Walker, 
and all Congressmen from our State, to my peti- 
tion before Starr had secured his Assemblymen. 
We met at Washington. When I showed my pa- 
pers to Major Hobbie he said, "You are all right; 
you can go home and, when the time comes, your 
commission will be sent to you." 

Mr. Starr, and his then friend Temple Clark, 



CITY OF RIPON. 109 

remained at Washington for months, sending back 
to Starr's clerk in his store, for papers against my 
character, but with all they looked up or manu- 
factured against me it done them no good, and 
this same clerk is now the postmaster of Ripon, 
but not by the aid of Starr, his former employer. 
The post-office at Ripon has always been a source 
of contention ; it has now got to be worth the 
strife we made for it at its commencement. On 
the day that Starr and his friend Clark returned 
from Washington, my commission came in by mail, 
and my Ripon friends were in high spirits. I held 
the office until I could make some addition to my 
growing town. About this time who should look 
in upon us with a view of settling in town, but 
A. M. Skeels, from Northern New York. I prom- 
ised him that I would resign as postmaster, in his 
favor, if he would come amongst us as one of our 
merchants. He came well recommeded as a 
business man, and said he was a democrat, so I 
resigned in his favor, and his democracy held out 
as long as the Democratic administration lasted, 
but it gave out when the administration changed. 
He made a good officer. After this Jedediah Bo wen 
was appointed, and a most worthy officer he was; 
but the then part} T in power, brought the charge 



110 HISTORY OP THE 

against Bowen that he affiliated too much with the 
Democrats ; that he would eondesend to sit in his 
office and chat with his old friend and patron 
Capt. Mapes, who was a democrat, and Bowen re- 
signed, for he did not find anything in the post 
office regulations against his being civil to every. 
body, Republicans or Democrats. So much for 
present Post Office. Jedediah Bowen has since his 
resignation as postmaster, been elected to the leg- 
islature, and a good &nd worthy member he made, 
showing that the people were with him if he was 
civil to both parties. He it was that I gave the 
start at Carbondale, and he it is that has done 
more than any other man in Ripon to forward all 
of its enterprises, and without him Ripon would 
not be the town it now is. Tn him the College 
has found one of its best helpers all the way 
through. Ripon, you may be proud of your 
Bowen ; success does not make him vain nor for- 
get to be grateful. 

Wisconsin was created a Territory in 1836, and 
was admitted into the Union as a State in 1848 
At the first State Democratic caucus for the nom- 
ination of Presidential electors and State officers. 
I was a member, and when they nominated Dewey, 
for Governor, and Doctor Darling for Congressman 



CITY OF RlPOtf. Ill 

from this district, they also nominated your writer 
for a Presidential elector, and, as the State was 
then Democratic, we were all elected, and I had 
to saddle one of my ponies and go over the then 
wide prairies to Madison to attend the convention. 
I was proud to associate with the men I met at 
Madison, for they would well compare with any 
assemblage of men I had ever met with; there I 
found many whom I had met with at Albany, for 
at that time the population was largely made up 
from the State of New York and New England 
States, but of late our population has had a large 
sprinkling from all parts of Europe and the whole 
world beside, to the great detriment of the rising 
generations, for the emigrant has brought with 
him his notions of industry and frugality, and as 
we meet and mingle we improve, so let them come 
and welcome and we will marry our daughters to 
their sons and our sons to their daughters, (of the 
same color) but no other mingling, and a most 
noble race will we have on this our American soil. 
And now that the country was almost all bought 
up and being made into farms, and the soil so pro. 
ductive, that a large surplus was accumulating 
without means to get it to market, especially that 
which was grown in the interior of the state, back 



112 HISTORY OF THE 

from the lakes, and some means had to be devised 
to get our grain to market, for it used it all up to 
draw it by teams; and who but a Wisconsin man 
would have got it in his brain to have thought of 
the plan that a Mr. Goodrich, of Rock County, 
did. As I am told, he proposed — when every 
every other mode was tried and failed and we had 
sent our best financiers east to raise money to 
build railroads — we, in this State, had started one 
road west from Milwaukee, but had not built it 
but a few miles when the means gave out, and 
something must be done, and the friends of the 
road were in council — and this Mr. Goodrich of 
Milton Junction comes forward with his plan and 
says to his fellows I will mortgage my farm, and 
on that we can raise money East, but others must 
do the same. And from this started the idea of the 
farm mortgage system as it is called, and by this 
system the first road was got through from the 
Lakes to the Mississippi, with many branches, and 
all agoing before we could make eastern capitalists 
believe in our ability to pay them. And was this 
not a bold undertaking for a farmer to put a mort- 
gage on his home to help build a public railroad? 
But it would not have been so bad had they all 
went into it, but no, there is always a part in a 



CITY OF RIPOK. 113 

community that stands back and the more liberal 
do the work while the wise ones reap the benefit 
equal with their more public spirited neighbors 
who brings about the improvements that enhauces 
the value of his farm one half; and all the close- 
fisted farmer does is to sit and chuckle over his 
rneaness, for says he, I have got the road and did 
not give a mortgage ; you, he says, you were not 
smart as he calls it. But so has it ever been and 
ever will be. But I ask to have those boasting men 
that think they are so smart to be marked by the 
coming generation, and say to them you have 
reaped where you did not sow, and of such let the 
world keep aloof; they are not good citizens. 

In this chapter on railroads I may as well say 
how I served in my time and age. When the 
farm mortgage system of road making got under 
way it occurred to me that we could get out from 
Horicon over to Ripon in that way, so we enlisted 
under J. B. Smith, Joseph Vleit and Daniel Rich- 
ards to get the Horicon Road to and through our 
town, and to accomplish this their must be mort- 
gages got, so I commenced by giving a mortgage 
on our own homestead, and went out to make 
school-house speeches to induce the farmer to give 
his mortgage. And we had deacons and judges 
15 



114 HISTOEY OF THE 

to go with us and back us up and say " we have 
given our mortgage and we would not have done 
it if we had not faith in it that all will be right." 
And it was all rio-ht if it had all been carried out 
agreeable to the original plan — and we were suc- 
cessful in converting many to the faith, for Deacon 
Clinton and Judge Rose was good talkers, and it 
was said that I was not tongue-tied ; but the mort- 
gages were got, the road built and running, proper- 
ty rose in value, towns grew up with a general 
prosperity through the country, and we who gave 
our mortgages and paid them without getting any 
stock in the roads in return, know that the county 
is largely indebted to us, for thus early in its set- 
tlement, being able to bring it about. Now 
after we had got the road so that we could carry 
off produce to market we wanted the road so ex- 
tended to the pine regions north, to get the pine 
lumber on the Wolf river, where it grew, and have 
it floated down. Now a town had grown to some 
account on that river called Oshkosb. They had 
mills and wanted a market, and to that town, we 
of Ripon, proposed to join and build a road 
Arrangements were entered into to vote their bonds, 
Oshkosh voted a hundred thousand dollars, Ripon 
seventy-five thousand, and other stock was taken to 



CITY OF EIPON. 115 

build the road, and a day set to meet at Oshkosh 
to make a permanent organization. But disappoint- 
ment is the common lot of all men. When we, of 
Ripon, got to Oshkosh we found that Wni. B. 
Ogden had proceeded us one day and had prevailed 
on the Oshkosh common council to rescind their 
vote of one hundred thousand dollars to the Ripon 
Road and vote it to the Northwestern Road, which 
at this time had got as far north as Fond du Lac, 
and which Ogden promised to extend to their place 
sooner than we could ; and this he made them be- 
lieve. But we had a large meeting in one of their 
halls and had the matter talked over ; but when a 
Ripon man would attempt to speak, the hired 
bully s for the Northwestern interest, would hiss 
him down if possible. But I got up on one of the 
seats and spoke at the top of my voice, saying 
"hear me for one minute and I will sit down." The 
request was so modest that the chairman gave me 
a hearing, and it was to this effect: "Gentlemen 
of Oshkosh, we of Ripon know where the pine 
lumber grows and we know the nearest route to 
it, you will her from us again." So our courtship 
broke off without a marriage and we started for 
home. 

We started a Ripon delegation for Madison, as 



116 HISTORY OF THE 

the Legislature was in session, and asked for a 
railroad, to be called the Ripon and Wolf River 
Railroad, and our request was granted. The road 
was to commence at or near Ripon, to run from 
thence to Wolf River, and up said river. This 
would give us the pine lumber at Winneconne, 
with as short a road as to Oshkosh, and would 
dispense with all the tug-boats ; and, as we had no 
land grants or Credit Mobilier, we had to take the 
new and novel mode of farm mortgages. My eld- 
est son was a civil engineer, and 1 set him at work 
making surveys while I disposed of the stock, 
a sufficient amount of which was taken to have 
built the road, had the proceeds been in Govern- 
ment bonds, but at that time they were not so 
plenty, and it was mostly in farm mortgages 
instead, which would not pass at par. We then 
made a contract with a party to grade and tie the 
road through to Winneconne. He had the pile of 
mortgages before him and commenced and graded 
a few miles, but the times of 1847 were hard on 
the finances of the country, and be backed out 
of the contract, and taking pay out of the pile of 
mortgages for what he had done, left us to finish 
it as best we could. 

Many amusing incidents occurred while dispos- 



CITY OF RIPON. 117 

of the stock and building this road. A party of 
us started out to go over the country through 
which the road was to pass. It consisted of G, N. 
Lyman, Jedediah Bo wen, G. N. Barnum, Ransom 
Smith (who was here on a visit from New York 
city to his son-in-law, Major Bovay,) and myself; 
Ransom Smith we called our Eastern capitalist, 
and the rest were speakers before we got through. 
We were met from the villages on the route by 
committees, who had the crowds out at Omro, 
Wiimeconne, New London and Weyauwega, all 
enthusiasm, all full of hope and expectation of a 
road at once. And this party meets occasionally 
and a good laugh is the consequence, for looking 
back now and seeing how little we had to base our 
hopes upon of a road, the country being new and 
undeveloped, it is laughable. But time, pa- 
tience and perseverance accomplishes all things, 
and this is demonstrated in one of the committee 
who came down to take us up to his place in 1856, 
and now, in 1873, he is the president of a road 
built and running into his Town of New London, 
in the person of President Ketchum of the Green 
Bay and Lake Pepin Road. This road comes from 
an other way than he hoped to get through to us. 
But hope on, our road will come yet, for the St. 



118 HISTORY OP THE 

Paul Railway Company should put that link in at 
once, for it is much needed ; but we worked on 
with labor and means until we had about exhaust- 
ed both strength and means and finally got it 
graded and tied through from Rush Lake Junc- 
tion to Winneconne, and we then started with the 
road all paid for but the iron, and we made a 
first mortgage bond on our road to purchase the 
iron. We had a contract with the Horicon Rail- 
road Company to run our road for us when ironed, 
but when we got our bonds and went East to pur- 
chase the iron we found we could not do nothing 
with them; foritwasin 1857, when Western bonds 
were worth but little, and our road a short one, 
and after staying months came home discouraged ; 
but we made one more trial and went to Pennsyl- 
vania, at Johnstown, where the iron is made. We 
proposed to purchase our iron, or as much as 
would iron the road to Omro. That would reach to 
the Fox River, and then after the road had got 
under operation it might earn the remainder to 
reach to Wolf River. We could get the iron by 
paying one-fourth of the purchase money down 
and the remainder the President and Directors 
must give their own notes, to show their faith in 
the road. The notes we could give much easier 



CITY OF RIPON 119 

than we could raise the ten thousand dollars, as 
the whole would cost about forty thousand. 

We came back and proposed to show to the 
business men of Milwaukee that this road, when 
completed and in running order, would directly 
cut off the trade that went to the Northwestern 
road and bring it to their city. The Chamber of 
Commerce and Merchants' Association called a 
meeting in order that we might be heard on the 
subject, and, after we had our say, they appointed 
a committee to treat with us. Our proposition to 
was to borrow from their business men the sum of 
ten thousand dollars, for which we would give our 
first moi tgage bonds on the road in the proportion 
of two dollars to one; they gave the amount, each 
merchant stating upon the paper what part he 
would take. After we had paid for the iron as 
agreed, it was shipped to Milwaukee, and upon its 
arrival another difficulty presented itself for it 
had incurred a freight bill of one thousand dol- 
lars, and there was no money in the company's 
treasury. Even had we paid for this freight bill, 
we would have had to provide means for laying 
the iron. We dare not go back to the Milwaukee 
merchants and ask for more aid, for they done all 
they had agreed, and a most liberal spirit they 



120 fflSToRY OF THE 

manifested. Finally I returned and called upon 
Lester Sexton, unto whom I told our trouble, and 
he said, ""You must have the iron; make a mort- 
gage on some of your Ripon property." This I 
did not want to do, as I was selling my lots in 
Ripon and building up the city and it would not 
do to encumber them, so I proposed to give him a 
mortgage upon my homestead, which he accepted, 
and I received the money for the freight. I then 
saw Mr. Higby who agreed to load the iron into 
the cars for one hundred dollars. We now went 
to work laying the track and got it all down but 
two car loads, and these were held by Higby until 
his one hundred dollars were paid; so this sum 
had to be raised, and the question was how shall 
we do it ? Reader, you may think that this is a 
small story for railroad men to tell, but we had 
exhausted our resources, and had no Congress, no 
land grant, no mobilier — nothing to fall back on. 
The country was poor in everything but her soil, 
and that we had mortgaged in order to advance 
the road thus far. I taxed uiy brain to its utmost 
capacity to devise a method by which to i-aise this 
one hundred dollars, and finally hit upon this plan. 
We made ten notes in sums of ten dollars, each to 
be paid in a car load of wood containing seven 



CITY OP RIPON. 121 

cords to be delivered in Ripon as soon as the road 
was in running order, which it was expected to be 
in a week or so. These notes I took to the two 
banks then at Ripon, and they went like hot 
cakes. I believe the banks hold those notes 
against the Ripon and Wolf River Railroad to this 
day, as the wood was growing in the forest at 
Omro at the time they were negotiated, and the 
Company has not cut much wood or run much of 
a railroad since, for the Horicon Company failed 
and the road was sold to the Milwaukee and St. 
Paul Railroad. But I little regretted this loss to 
my bankers, for with all my solicitations for aid 
for a road which would have brought them all 
their lumber, and which would had done more to 
build up their city than any other one road, we 
had never received a dollar in Ripon, except from 
Gr. N. Lyman and J. Bowen. Yes, the one hundred 
dollars which we received for that wood at the 
low price at which it was offered, was all Ripon 
gave, yet they voted seventy -five thousand dollars 
to build the Oshkosh road. I believe the city has 
since given fifteen thousand dollars for another 
Oshkosh railroad without deriving any commer- 
cial advantages from it, not even sufficient to 
compensate her for the trade which she has lost 
16 



122 HISTORY OF THE 

in consequence of little towns springing up along 
the line; but I think that Oshkosh has heard from 
that Ripon delegation by this time, for they had 
to build their Ripon road themselves, less the fif- 
teen thousand dollars above mentioned. They 
were compelled to build it, for the Ripon and 
Wolf River Railroad together with the St. Paul 
road connected with all the railroads leading 
west, the market where all of the Wolf River 
lumber had to go to. Oshkosh must either build 
a road to Ripon, or move her mills to Winneconne, 
She chose to build the road, as she had the homes 
of her mill men already built, and it would cost 
her more to move them than it would to build the 
road ; but I am not sure but what it would have 
been better for her to have done that, for that 
would have dispensed with her fleet of tug boats, 
which they have to keep to tow their logs down 
from Winneconne to Oshkosh, and then when 
they were just as near market as they were when 
they left Winneconne. But so much for the far 
seeing men of Oshkosh, of 1856 ; but in 1872 
they were thoroughly aroused, and built a road to 
Ripon, and gave it to the St. Paul R. R., still 
keeping their tug boats going, while it could all 
have been done at Winneconne, and saved the ex- 



CITY OF RIPON. 123 

pense of building the road, and of keeping the 
tug boats in operation. So much for Oshkosh to 
this date ; I may have something farther to say 
hereafter. 

In the the matter of town buildings, it has had 
its difficulties, as well as in railroad building, and 
without them what is life. Town proprietors are 
called on and expected to aid in every enterprise. 
Churches, schools, roads, and everything that goes 
to make a live town, the proprietor is expected to 
lead in. So I gave the ground for all the churches, 
and colleges in Ripon, and also helped to build 
them. But I would notVjoin all of the churches, 
even had I been found worthy, besides it would 
have been very expensive to have assisted in run. 
ning them all. As to my fitness to join ; I was 
asked to by many, and my reply in most cases 
was, that if I joined one the others would not 
like it, and I had in early life joined the frater- 
nity of Masons, and was persecuted for that. So 
I have thus far kept out of the churches, except 
as a regular attendant at some one of the different 
denominations, hoping some day to find out what 
could be found out on the subject of religion. I 
have, in my after life, read all that T could find to 
read on the subject, to find out, or get some evi- 



124 HISTORY OF THE 

dence that we shall live again in a better world, 
and it would be, to a deserving man, a great solace 
through this life of tribulation, if he could get 
together evidences in his mind that he is to have a 
glorious future. But I have my mind made up 
on that subject, and if I should disclose what that 
is, it might make or shake a faith, and that I do 
not want to do, for I do believe there is a great 
number, without hypocrisy, believe that they will 
meet all of their departed friends who have gone 
before them, 

I know that I have a dear sister who most fully 
believes that she will be made happy in that meet- 
ing beyond the grave ; I pray that it may be so But 
if I have not at this late period of life got my 
mind made up, it would be proof that I was too 
stupid and not worth the labor of attempting to 
convert. But this much I do believe, that the 
power that brought me into this state of existence 
will do what is right in the matter, and to that 
power I surrender myself, trusting that all will be 
well in the end. I was brought up by Baptist 
parents and taught in the doctrine of Calvin, and 
I know all the parts of the scriptures that my 
father use to urge to sustain that doctrine; and 
he made himself believe that it was the true doc- 



CITY OF KIPON. 125 

trine. But I made up my mind long ago not to 
discuss the subject. A man's belief is his as much 
as his coat, and I would not take either from him 
if I could. But if a man thinks himself wise on 
those subjects let him prostrate himself on the 
earth and look up to the heavens and see all of 
those bright stars in the arch of blue above, then 
look back on all he has got from books, and then 
ask himself, " what do I know of all this beauti- 
ful structure above and about me" Will it not 
humble him to think how little he really knows ? 
At least it has that effect on me. Even ask the 
most learned astronomer what the sun is made of, 
and what answer can he make \ 

In the course of this history I have alluded to 
a mute brother, who had to live with me, and 
helped, by his labor, to build up the City of 
Ripon ; and here he labored daily ; and he had 
become so attached to my wife, by her kind care 
of him, that it deserves a passing note, for he had 
had a step-mother the most of his life, or until he 
came to live with me, and he found that my wife 
looked after his every want, and a growing attach- 
ment sprang up between them. He would not 
let her lift her hand to do a chore about the house, 
for he would fly and do it himself ; and she found 



126 HISTORY OF THE 

out he was very particular how his linen and 
clothes were done up, for he was a proud man, 
and the Sabbath da) would always find him at 
church, and always w 7 ell dressed. He would often 
call my attention to the care and pains my wife 
took of his clothes, and it was with the greatest 
pleasure that he showed me the difference be- 
tween this and the way his step-mother used to 
do. And they were happy, each to serve the 
other. But then comes the death scene ; he must 
die. But he had lived to the age of over 70 
years, and was always healthy. But one night, 
after he had done every chore about the house, as 
he was wont to do, my wife discovered that he 
did not appear well, and she said : " Harry is not 
well ; he looks pale and puts his hand to his heart 
and shows he has a pain there." I thought he only 
had a .severe cold, and I told my wife so ; but she 
discovered something was the matter, and she said ; 
" J shall not go to bed ; poor Harry is sick, and I 
shall look after him ; " and she did so. She 
nursed him all night, and in the morning he 
dropped to sleep, and she left the room for awhile. 
Our carpenter, a Ned Rogers, who slept in the 
room, called to Mrs. Mapes, and said : " Harry is 
fainting ! " Mrs. Mapes ran to the bed ; he had 



CITY OF BIPON 127 

attempted to get up ; he looked at her with a 
smile, as he always did, then laid back, folding 
his hands across his breast, looked at her again and 
said : " God bless you; you have always done all 
you could for me," as well as a look and a smile 
could say it, and expired without a struggle. Be- 
fore I could get into the room he was dead. He 
is buried by the side of my wife, whom he loved 
so well, in our family grounds in Ripon. 

I will relate an incident to show how the growth 
of Ripon was accomplished. I had commenced 
to build and had a mill, a public house and a store 
or two, and I was soliciting every man that passed 
through the village (that I thought would be a 
good business man) to stop and help build us up. 
G. N. Lyman had passed through on his way to 
Berlin, and had made a commencement tbeie by 
building a store and filling it with goods and get 
ting lumber to supply a yard. I said to Lyman, 
"you have mistaken your point in going to Berlin, 
this is the spot, we have the water power and are 
in the midst of a fine farming country." His re- 
ply was, "your town will never amount to a row 
of pins." But I saw that I had made him listen 
to my story, for he came to me and said, "what 
do you ask for your business lots," so I took him 



128 HISTORY OP THE 

out on the plat and showed him the lots, and when 
he had selected one he took a gold watch out of 
his pocket and said "I will give you that for the 
lot " I said to my son " make him out a deed," 
for I knew that if you wanted a man to talk for a 
place you must make him interested in the place, 
But what I said to him about the town did not 
affect him as much as a bargain that followed this. 
There came to Bipon, a few days after this, two 
good business men, seeking a location for business. 
One was a dry goods and the other a hardware 
merchant. They were pleased with the place but 
found no stores, and they told me they would 
come to Bipon if they could find accomodations 
for their business. I told them that if they would 
each advance one year's rent I would build them 
a store and have it completed in sixty days. They 
said that as soon as they could get a stock of 
goods from New York, they would ; " but what 
kind of a store will you build in that short time, 
and what rent will you ask ? " "I will build you 
two good stone stores, 60x24 feet, and have a pub- 
lic hall over them and charge for each $250/' 
And the bargain was made, binding myself to 
have them done in time or pay five dollars per 
day for every day's delay. But now for the loca- 



CITY OF EIPON. 129 

tion of the store; no lot' would suit but the 
one that I had sold a few days before to G. N. 
Lyman, and he was at his home in Sheboygan, so 
I wrote to him asking his lowest cash price for it. 
The watch which he had given for the lot was 
worth about fifty dollars, but his price was two 
hundred and fifty, and, as I had no other alterna- 
tive, I paid it; the stores had to be built, for I so 
contracted. But Lyman was converted to Ripon, 
and property advanced at such a rate that within 
six months I sold him more than ten thousand dol- 
lars worth of real estate. The stores were built 
in time and filled with goods, and the hall over 
them completed. At that time it was called Henton 
Hall, since City Hall, and is now converted into a 
large furniture wareroom. When the hall was 
completed, we marked the floor off into twelve 
circles for cotillion sets, and had an opening, sell- 
ing one hundred tickets at two dollars and fifty 
cents each. By this transaction we received seven 
hundred and fifty dollars in advance for the stores 
and hall, and this went far towards paying the 
fiist cost of the building. 

It is interesting to the pioneers to get together 
and talk over the early scenes of the settlements. 
We also used to have our yearly festivals at which 
17 



130 HISTORY OF THE 

we usually had a good and sociable time. On one 
of these occasions I was requested to give a history 
of the first twenty years of the setthnent, which 
I prepared and read at one of our meetings. The 
address was published in the Ripon Common- 
wealth, and found its way to all parts of the 
country and to Europe. It was published in a 
Belfast (Ireland) newspaper, which commented at 
length upon it and tried to explain unto the people 
of Belfast how we built cities and improved the 
country in this our American world. Another 
copy found its way to California, where it fell into 
the hands of James Tombs who was then living 
there with his family ; they had been among the 
very first settlers about Ripon, and to them, amid 
the golden mountains of the Pacific coast and far 
from their old friends, it was particularly interest- 
ing. They read it over and over again ; and finally 
resolved to return to the country which I had so 
fully described, and back they came. As I had 
moved a short distance out of town they failed to 
meet me until some time after their return, but 
Mrs. Tombs espied me on the street one day, and 
sent for me to come to the Mapes House, where 
they were then boarding. When I arrived, she 
said, "Now I feel as if I had got back to Ripon. 



CITY OF EIPON. 131 

It was not Ripon without Captain Mapes. Yes, 
Captain, that address of yours, which was pub- 
lished in the Commonwealth, brought us back, 
and here we are going to stay; the little girl 
standing befoie you is to be educated here if she 
lives. I read the address to our men every Sun- 
day until I got them started, and now we have 
bought a delightful home here." Thus is Ripon 
indebted to the Captain for one more good inhab- 
itant, for such they have always been. 



132 HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MY SPEECH AT THE PIONEER FESTIVAL. 

The following is the lecture delivered before 
the pioneers of Ripon, at Opera Hall, Tuesday 
evening October 8, 1870. 

Ladles and Gentlemen: — I claim to be the 
founder of this fair and beautiful City of Ripon. 
It is my child, born of my loin and brain. This 
child has now reached the years of manhood, it 
is precisely twenty-one years old, and at such a 
time it is not out of place for father and child to 
talk together, so I claim the privilege of talking 
to you this evening. It is a wise child that knows 
its father, and, in order that you may be wise, it 
is proper that in commencing what I have to say 
at this time I should give you a brief history of 
myself, and that will tell how I came to be father 
of so promising a child. 

Your speaker was born on the banks of the 
Hudson River; resided there until twenty years 
old, and then went to live with a brother-in-law — 



CITY OF BIPON. 133 

who was father of your J. B. Barlow, — in Dela- 
ware County, New York, fifty miles west of the 
place of my birth and boyhood, hiring out to him 
at eight dollars per month as clerk in his store and 
general helper upon his farm. I served him faith- 
fully and to the best of my ability for two years 
and a half, when I went into business with him as 
a partner. In about a year he died, leaving me to 
go on a] one. I there sold goods in a country 
store, made potash, and made improvements for 
twelve years. At the same time I got up such a 
popularity that, in 1831, I was elected to the 
State Legislature. How strange are the vicissi- 
tudes of life ! My competitor in this election was 
William B. Ogden, the great railroad king and 
millionaire; he was a strong and popular oppo- 
nent, but I beat him easy. That winter, while at 
Albany, I became one of a lumber company that 
purchased a tract of pine land in Pennsylvania, 
near Carbondale. We there built mills, made 
lumber, sold goods, and made some money. From 
Carbondale I went to the city of New York in the 
spring of 1836, and there opened a yard for the 
sale of lumber. I was very successful the first 
year; but the next year (1837) was the great 
financial crash, when every bank in the United 



134 HISTORY OF THE 

States failed, and in that crash went all I had 
made, except about six thousand dollars. With this 
money I went to steamboating on the Hudson 
Hi ver— following it for seven years with great 
success — and this is why they call me Captain; my 
military title is Major. But now again came mis- 
fortune, by the sinking of a boat in which I had 
put my all. I was once more in the world with 
nothing but health and energy This was in 1844. 
Gathering up the fragments of the wreck, and 
taking with me my family, I came West in search 
of that which was lost. You ask me did I find 
it % My answer is, that 1 did not find riches, but 
I found a substitute — I found the Garden of Eden. 
It took a great deal of travel from East to West 
and from West to East ; but in 1845 I did find it, 
and when found I moved right into it — right here 
in the midst of these beautiful and fertile prairies 
and openings — right here upon the banks of your 
beautiful Silver Creek. 

After about four years spent in cultivating this 
fruitful soil and improving the waste that lay 
upon your broad and beautiful prairies, I pur- 
chased of the owners, Governor Horner and fam. 
ily, the property upon which the heart of your 
beautiful and prosperous city is situated, extending 



CITY OF RIPON 135 

from the railroad bridge to the Cresco mill-pond — 
a spot which was, in its state of nature, the fitting 
center of that Garden of Eden. These of you 
who were here early enough to have seen it as 
nature made it, with its silvery ©reek leaping and 
jumping over rock and gravel, between its sloping 
green banks, and skirted with its handsome groves 
upon hills and in valleys, will, along with me, 
remember its great beauty with almost a regret 
that it must make way for your present splendid 
improvements, your princely stores, your gorgeous 
palaces, and the activity of an energetic go-ahead 
city. 

In February, 1849, myself and sons came upon 
this beautiful spot with axes in hand, to strike the 
first blows which were to change this beauty of 
nature into a town, which, with your help, is a 
beautiful specimen of the work of man. The boys 
could not resist that feeling for the beautiful, 
which made them regret the necessity of spoiling 
so perfect a picture, and I was as soft in my feel- 
ings as they, but man must labor, and must earn 
his bread by the sweat of his brow — the axe must 
go to the tree - felling must yield to utility ! Then 
and there I struck the blow which began your 
city! Then and there, twenty-one years ago, at 



136 HISTORY OF THE 

the age of fifty -one years, / begot Ripon! This is 
your genealogy. 

I purchased these grounds with certain condi- 
tions, some of which were that I should build a 
grist-mill and public house within a year, and that 
I should keep the house myself for one year. I was 
to have the water-power and every alternate lot. 
This called for an outlay of at least ten thousand 
dollars, and was a big undertaking, for what few 
dollars I had were in wild lands around what is 
now your city and the improvements I had been 
able to make; but the mill was completed, the 
house built, and all running on time ! This hotel 
was called the Ripon House, then the American, 
and is now Woods' Hotel. 

When the house was finished we had to give an 
opening party, (for this was the custom in those 
days,) and it was a great event The parties in 
those days were social, and brought great good 
feeling, extending acquaintances and making 
frienships over a large section of country ; people 
came from great distances to meet each other and 
find neighbors. At this party, Algoma and Osh- 
kosh bad their Spalding, Butrick, Mills, Wolsey 
and others ; Rosendale her Col. Pinkney and 
others ; Green Lake her Horner ; Berlin, Sat. 



CITY OF RIPON. 137 

Clark, Dakins, and others, and so on, from far and 
near, they came in hosts, all doing credit to them- 
selves and the occasion. Some of the fruits of 
these parties were matrimonial. Col. Buttrick of 
Milwaukee here met the belle of Green Lake, 
— Miss Fanny Berlin — the result was matrimony; 
and I suppose many other families might trace 
their origin to the Ripon House opening. 

It was no boy's job to make this a town to equal 
or outdo its neighbors ; all of them had two, three, 
or more years the start of us. We were on no 
navigable waters, we then had no railroads, and 
this little stream, although so beautiful, was small 
for a water-power; but by talking water into the 
stream, and giving away about all of my lots, I 
induced settlers to come and commence, and we — 
you and I — have gone on and made it the center 
of trade for this rich and fertile country. 

One of our first and best efforts was to com- 
ttnence a college. We were then laughed and 
jeered at for calling it a college, but how is it 
now? I think it is worthy of the name, and of 
all the effort we made to get it. When Ripon 
had not a dozen dwellings, we put up and enclosed 
the first college building, and your speaker was 
President of the first institution, so you see I have 
18 



138 HISTORY OF THE 

held office, an old Democrat, in this Republican 
town. Our object was to draw around us a class of 
inhabitants that would have the pride to educate 
their children, and they would be good for every 
good work. But it was a great undertaking;; the 
country so new, the settlers so poor; and we had 
to resort to every honorable means to induce them 
to take hold. I well remember oar getting up a 
Fourth of July celebration so as to get the people 
together. We were all too poor to pay fifty cents 
for a dinner, so we made it a pic-nic, and they 
came out in crowds. Mr. Starr, myself, and oth- 
ers, spoke to them of the advantages of a college, 
waking up their interest nobly. With an old fife 
and drum at the head, we formed in procession, 
and worked up such an enthusiasm that everyone 
was for doing all he could. One farmer got so 
enthusiastic that he left the ranks and, running 
ahead, whispered in my ear, " Captain, send down 
your teams to-morrow, and I will give three thous- 
and feet of clear lumber." I am sorry to acknowl- 
edge that our conversion of this particular man 
did not hold out, for when I sent the teams, the 
next day, they came back with five hundred feet 
of common boards, showing that his faith had 
dropped down, but hosts of liberal men took hold 



CITY OF RIPON. 139 

and hung fast. We started our college as a lib- 
eral, not sectarian, institution, and afterwards 
found that this would not do. The Methodists 
had started a college at Appleton, and their cir- 
cuit ministers were selling scholarships to our 
neighbors ; so we offered our grounds and building 
to any orthodox church that would take it and 
make a permanent school of the highest order. 
The Congregational Church, through Mr. Walcott, 
took it, and most nobly are they carrying out 
their agreement. 

Upon the occasion of the celebration I have just 
been speaking of, in my speech I took occasion to 
say to the young ladies present that they ought 
not to receive the addresses of any young man who 
would not aid us with our college, "for he is not 
fit to be your husband or the father of your chil- 
dren." Some censured me for this, but that was 
twenty years ago, and the number of scholars 
under twenty now in attendance, are witnesses of 
the wisdom of the remark. May children con- 
tinue to be born to fill the halls of this noble 
institution, and may its teachings always do those 
children good ! 

A newspaper was another item in your progress 
which required effort and labor to establish, and 



140 HISTORY OF THE 

without this you might still have been a four 
corners. We made many efforts to get a printer 
among us, to take notes and print them, but with- 
out success until, in 1853, one of our own number 
(A. P. Mapes) was induced to start' the Herald, 
and blow a horn for Ripon. The Herald was the 
foundation of your Press -the Commonwealth is 
its successor. Since it started we have had one 
or two papers up to this time; we have had a Times, 
a Spur, a Star, and several others, and they have 
generally been conducted with ability. Among 
the earlier editors were Judge Runnals, C. J. Allen, 
T. J. Mapes, and George W. Parker. 

Twenty-one years ago we had no churches^ 
Episcopal services by the Rev. Mr. Ingraham, of 
Dartford, were sometimes held in a shanty on the 
bank of Silver Creek ; and occasional} 7 the Rev. 
Mr. Murphy, of Waupun, held Baptist services. 
He preached at Ceresco, to the Wisconsin Phal- 
anx ; but the Phalanx, through their President, 
Mr. Warren Chase, had to report to the Governor 
of the State yearly, and in his report Mr. Chase 
says, " We have religious services by the Baptists, 
but not of that high order that the people were 
prepared to appreciate " — Elder Murphy preached 
no more. That admirable system of the Metho- 



CITY OF K1PON. 141 

dist Church, by which their circuit ministers travel 
between rich and poor settlements, and can get 
out of the poor into the rich before he starves, is 
au excellent arrangement, for which all new set- 
tlements should thank them. To this system we 
were al«o indebted for occasional religious ser- 
vices. These were our religious opportunities for 
some years ; now we have eight fine church edi- 
fices, and I hope all well filled. 

Twenty-one years ago where your Public Square 
now is was brush and underwood. Twenty -one 
years ago the population of what was then Bipon 
consisted of your speaker and his family and his 
two sons and their families. Then came the Ped- 
ericks, father and sons; then E. L. Northrop and 
wife, as a merchant, and with them, as a clerk, 
E. P. Brockway, now the President of the First 
National Bank ; then Asa Hill and family, whose 
sons are your Hill Brothers. Then — well, they 
came so fast after this that I can't follow them, 
but it was from these first settles that our big 
help in energy and liberality came. 

There are two more notable characters in our 
early history that I must mention : Our first 
doctor, whose name was Whitcomb — he made 
some very critical operations on his patients ; Cof 



142 HISTORY OF THE 

these, however, I had better speak when we are 
alone) — then, there was Sebastian Shanks, a Ger- 
man shoemaker. Him we made our first high 
marshal 1. These, together with the Phalanx, of 
about 20 families, in the valley below, constituted 
the entire population of what is now your city ; 
but I suppose you now count 5000 or 6000 — I 
judge so from the vote you polled some years 
since on the county division question, and of course 
it has increased since then! That vote — 925 — Ire- 
collect that, but have not had much to do with 
voting since then — so I have to go back to them 
for figures. 

Twenty-one years ago, your township, post office 
and the first ward of your city was called Ceresco 
- -now it is all Ripon. Some may ask why these 
names, and why this change ? Ceresco was the 
name given to the entire township, by the Wiscon- 
sin Phalanx, an association that had settled in the 
valley below, the year before I came to it ; and 
who had control of all town matters in its earliest 
days And let me here say, that the great un- 
popularity that became attached to this name, 
grew out of a misapprehension of the Phalanx, 
its objects, management, and of its members. A 
better population of that number you will seldom 



CITY OF RIPON. 143 

find, and some of your very best citizens of to-day 
were of that institution. 

Ripon was at first the name of but a part of 
your city, and did not reach outside of it ; it orig- 
inated in this way : At the time I purchased of 
Governor Horner, he asked the privilege of giving 
the name to our embryo city. This I granted with 
restrictions. First, that it should not be a per- 
sonal name. Second, that it should not be like 
any other name in the United States; for I had 
seen great confusion in locating towns of similar 
names Third, that it should not be an Indian 
name, for our State was then being covered all 
over with Wans, and similar names, that were per- 
fectly confounding to strangers. And lastly, that 
the name should be short. The Governor's ances- 
tors came from Ripon, in England; that name he 
selected, and as it came within all the restrictions, 
I adopted it as the name for this center. And af- 
terwards, when the early strifes had died out, 
and a name common to all was wanted, Ripon was 
adopted as not having the unpopulaity attached to 
it as there was to Ceresco, but was associated with 
the idea of progress, and otherwise popular. Rip- 
on and Ceresco were married in interest and feeling. 
Ripoc being the man in the match, covered the 
bride with its name. 



144 HISTORY OF THE 

Twenty-one years ago you had no Railroad — 
except some of basswood, with the rails running 
the wrong way — -and if you made the trip to and 
from Milwaukee in a week, you were fast. But 
now you make the trip in one day, and grumble 
because it's slow. Now, without labor or fatigue 
you may go west to California, east to Maine or 
sunrise, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and north 
by railroad and river 100 miles into the heart of 
your lumber region. But to accomplish this you 
had to mortgage your farms ; yes, and to pay your 
mortgages without anything in return, except the 
benefit and a clear conscience from knowing that 
you have all done your duty — that is, some of you 
have done this, whilst others stood back and 
chuckled over the event and never gave one cent. 
But hold ! I come to praise, not to censure. You 
did not pay for admittance here to be found fault 
with, and if I have a chapter of censure I will 
reserve it for another day. It is not expected that 
you can all be saints — your sinners— well, I will 
put them in my book. 

Twenty-one years ago you had one small store, 
12x16 — Starr & Rounds — and in that same small 
building was your post-office This present sea- 
son you have built between 20 and 30 stores of 



CITY OP RIPON. 145 

stone and brick — splendid buildings, that would 
be an ornament to any city. Twenty-one years 
ago you had no halls ; now you have four, three 
public and one private — all doing great credit to 
your town. The public halls you may name ; the 
private one I will — Jo Hall ! 

Twenty-one years^ago you had no manufacto- 
ries — now you 'have several carriage and wagon 
shops, turning out work in large quantities and of 
superior quality. You are making a great many 
agricultural implements, (but not near enough;) 
and you have a machine shop and foundry, which, 
from a small beginning, has grown to be an insti- 
tution you should foster and be proud of — and 
you have some others. But let me here say, that 
upon this question of manufacturing, much of the 
future growth of Ripon depends ; you must give 
men something to do if you wish to keep them in 
town. Go to manufacturing. He who works him- 
self, and helps his fellow to work, and gets his 
pay, is the great man. 

Twenty-one years ago you had a small grist mill 

— at Ceresco — now you have at least one large one 

and at one time we had five|flouring mills on the 

stream ; we also had at one time, a woolen mill, 

19 



146 HISTORY OF THE 

but that, except what is left as a brewery, has 
gone into the mills. 

The question is frequently asked, why these di- 
agonal streets % The answer is, that I hud out the 
town at right angles, with the cardinal points of 
the compass ; but the Phalanx then held the town 
offices and town power-, and they had laid out 
these angling roads and would not change them. 
We had our town to build then, and could not 
wait to out-vote them, so had to submit to the 
" powers that be." But that inconvenience is 
probably more than compensated for, by the fact 
that these same men extended their angling roads 
far into the country in every direction, and made 
the distances into Ripon the shorter for it ; besides, 
Philadelphia, with its square corners is only a 
second-class city, whilst New York, the great city, 
is full of just such three cornered blocks as yours, 
and like you, makes the best of it, by building on 
them noble and ornamental buildings. 

I have spoken of giving away lots, to induce 
settlers to come in. The first three of these were: 
to E. L. Northrop, a lot upon the east side of the 
public square ; this lot, without buildings, is now 
worth at least, $7,500, and was given upon condi- 
tion that he kept a stock of goods one year. To 



CITY OF KIPON. 147 

the Pedricks, the lot where Coe & Corbit are now 
selling goods ; this lot, in its naked state, is now 
worth at least $8,000, and was given on condition 
of the building and painting of a two story house. 
To Alexander Beardsley, a lot east of the Ameri- 
can House, upon condition of building a stone 
blacksmith shop — the one that is there now — and 
I might go on and tell you of a greairmany more, 
if I had the time, but I have not. They have all 
received their deeds and a good title from me. 
and, I am glad to say, made money out of them. 

Twenty years ago you had no fire companies, 
and no fires except the prairies on fire. Up to the 
time I left here— a year ago last September — we 
never had a fire, except Dobb's small barn; but 
since then you have been getting ambitious in that 
line, and have had several that would do credit to 
any town. Now you have fire companies and en- 
gine houses, somewhere in town, I suppose, but I 
have not seen them. 

Twenty-one years ago the naked prairies was 
your only race-course and fair grounds, and there 
was no association to run them. But now you 
have a beautiful driving park and fair ground, with 
fine enclosure, track, stands, buildings and every- 
thing complete ; but above all, two hundred stock- 



148 HISTORY OF THE 

holders — two hundred as live men as ever associ- 
ated in any enterprise. The organization of this 
association, and the getting up of its grounds and 
buildings in thirty days, and the extraordinary 
success of its undertakings for the last four years 
cannot be surpassed — I don't believe it can be 
equalled. These two hundred men are just as lib- 
eral, go-ahead, energetic men as they make. Arid 
it is to these, and to others like them, that your 
town owes most for its prosperity. I never asked 
one of the two hundred to take stock but what he 
took it. I have often been asked how we got to* 
gether such a set of men in and about Ripon. The 
answer is, that I had a net set here at Ripon, to 
stop the big ones and let the little ones go on. 

In early days the emigration to all the country 
north of this had to pass through Ripon; this was 
on the road to Princeton, Berliu, Eureka, Omro, 
Oshkosh, Neenah, Appletou, <fec, giving me the 
opportunity of talking with those who were trav- 
eling in these directions. If I found a man I 
thought would make a good citizen, I spent time 
on him, but if I thought he was little fish, I let 
him slide, telling him that they were building 
towns north of us on navigable waters, and there 
was the place for him. This is the way I caught 



CITY OF RIPON. 149 

such a lot of good fellows, and fastened them to 
Ripon. It took some tall talking, and sometimes 
led men to call me gassy. I had some friends who 
followed me from the East — Mr Bowen, who has 
done so much for your college, and so much for 
your building, and Mr. Barlow, who has been an 
active and good business man with you. They 
had be^n clerks with me thirty and forty years 
ago, and knew that all I said was not gas; at any 
rate I had not spoiled their business habits, and 
all I have said for Ripon has been more than car- 
ried out. 

In starting your town 1 used to take strangers 
to the top of College Hill, and there, whilst show- 
ing them the beauties and extent of our country, 
explain to them our plans, and what we were 
going to do; how we would have a line of colleges 
here; how, upon the one hundred aud twenty feet 
fall on our stream, a division into twenty feet each 
would make a circle of five mills; that upon every 
hill we would have a church, and upon every swell 
of ground a beautiful lesidence; that our Main 
Street would be built up with two and three story 
houses, and how we could and would do a great 
deal more. I remember distinctly of one day 
taking to that hill a lamented friend — Lester Sex- 



150 HISTORY OF THE 

ton, of Milwaukee. I told him all these things, 
and remember how he looked at me f.s though he 
doubted my prophecies. As he afterwards told 
me, he went home and got about him his salesmen, 
book-keepers, clerks, and some friends, and told 
them about his trip; how at Ripon he saw the 
gassiest man he had ever seen; an old steamboat 
captain by the name of Mapes; how I told him 
where we were going to have colleges, mills, stores, 
etc., and almost made him believe that he saw, 
right on the naked prairie, a population of four 
thousand or five thousand inhabitants. When 
telling me of this, he said that I appeared so san- 
guine of what I said that he did not lose sight of 
me or my town; and the last time I saw him 
before he died he told me that he had seen all my 
gassy story carried out, and more too. It was 
through him that we borrowed ten thousand dol- 
lars to put through the Ripon and Wolf River 
River Railroad, over which passes all that lumber 
for your city and the country around you. So 
you see, the Captain's gas has done something to- 
wards the building up of your town 

Speaking of my foretelling what Ripon would 
be, there were some who believed me and acted 
upon that belief at once. My good friend, Mr. 



CITY OF RIPOK. 15 L 

Richard Catlin, rode up to where we were laying 
the foundation for the first house (that was the 
American House), and asked what we were going 
to do here. I stopped work long enough to tell 
him my plans, and he believed, for he went right 
off and bought up all the Government lands he 
could for miles around Kipon. These lands were 
all good, and by having this center grow up as I 
said it would, his lands have brought him a good 
price His faith in me has done him good, and he 
has found his account in it. 

Pioneers always have some doleful tales to tell 
of privations and hardships gone through with in 
settling up a new country ; but I have none to tell 
of this. When I was a boy I had some experience 
in the hardships of clearing up heavy timber, but 
here we had none of that. Our meadowy were 
all ready to put in the scythe and cut all the hay 
we wanted ; the ground was already cleared, ready 
to put in the plow. Could there be anything 
more delightful than we had in the work of im- 
proving our prairie farms? And they have paid 
so well ! You, farmers, must not get the blues. 
Wheat will come up again; and if it does not 
raise something else. Your lands are rich, you 
have good markets at your door, and you get your 



152 HISTORY OF THE 

lumber here in the city as cheap as it can be pur- 
chased in America. Your climate is as good as 
any in the worldj; no long droughts, but alternate 
rain and sunshine. I hear some wishing they 
could sell out and go where the winters are 
shorter. Why are you so fearful of winter? You 
are not obliged to be out more than to make the 
contrast agreeable. Your fuel is cheap, so fill 
your stove, look out of the window, and whistle 
at the cold. Sitting by the fire with your wife, 
that is comfort, if your tempers are compatible ; if 
not, you have only got to go to Chicago or Dodge 
County and get a divorce, then try the compati. 
bility again. But do not go away from Central 
Wisconsin to find a better place; you can't do it! 
You may be proud to say, when away from home, 
that you hail from Ripon. If your daughter is 
educated at Ripon College, that will pass her to a 
good husband ; and if your son is schooled here, 
his addresses will be cordially received in the best 
families of the country. I have seen the little 
girl grow up here to be the accomplished lady; to 
be the bride gracing the drawing-rooms of Eastern 
cities, and in this, believe me, I have pride, as also 
in your young men. Yes, and my own daughter 
who was schooled here; she and her husband went 



CITY OF RIPON. 153 

away from me. But they brought her back, and 
laid her upon that beautiful hill. Beautiful? 
Yes, if there can be beauty in a grave-yard, it is 
in that spot of ground, lying in the very centre of 
your city, so retired from the stir and bustle of 
town; it is "death in the midst of life." I have 
dear friends there; and when the time comes that 
I must go, you that may be here, please lay me 
quietly by their side. When I tell you how many 
years I have lived, you may think that those ser- 
vices can not be delayed long, and they may not ; 
but it is not the number of years that always 
make men old, but how those years have been 
lived, and I am willing that yon delay these ser- 
viees, as long as good Heaven may have decreed. 

On the 16th of January last, 1870, I had lived 
72 years, and I stand before you reading my own 
manuscript, without glasses ; I have my own 
teeth and hair, and am hale and hearty. I feel 
some like the old Vermonter, who had the idea, 
and used to say, that people would not die if they 
did not kill themselves with medicine. His 
friends said, " you must die ; how are you going 
to keep from it ? He said he would keep walking; 
" no man ever died walking." So I propose to 
keep walking. Yes, I have led an active life, and 
20 



154 HISTORY OF THE 

that, I think, helps to prolong it. T hope to see 
much improvement in your city yet. 

I had almost forgotten some of our early institu- 
tions. When I speak of our first livery stable ; some 
of you will smile at the recollection of its proprie- 
tor, Jesse Campion Do you see him? An Eng- 
lish plowman, with a walk that gave a peculiar 
swing to his body, as though one foot was travel- 
ing on the land and the other in the furrow. His 
"'orses," as he called them, were three; one spa- 
vined and two ring-boned. He used to carry his 
passengers by weight; so much a hundred weight, 
and distance was of no account; for his customers 
had to pay bis bills on the road. His was the 
first wedding in the city. He married a Yankee 
girl; but the match was incompatible. Ripon 
now has livery stables to compare with any of its 
neighbors. 

Our first dray-horse was " Dick." He had the 
misfortune to break a leg while on the road from 
Milwaukee to Ripon, and was turned out to die; 
but Dick did not die; his leg calloused over so he 
could be used, and the public, with him, done their 
own draying. He was a sort of public property, 
for he who got Dick up first, had the best right. 
But the citizens began to quarrel who should use 
him; then I sold Dick into other service. 



CITY OF RIPON. 155 

Our first Congregational clergyman was a young 
man by the name of Sherrill. He was fresh from 
the schools, and had much to learn of Western 
men and manners. He officiated at the second 
wedding, and weddings of those days were not 
like Ripon weddings of 1870. This was a young 
carpenter of about twenty years old, and a young 
girl of about thirty. I received a description of 
the affair from Mr. Sherrill, and sympathized with 
the girl. They had walked about six miles to 
town and found Mr. Sherrill away from home, but 
he was expected back soon. They waited ; the 
hours went away slow to them; the girl got very 
impatient and would go to window every few 
minutes, apparently fearing that he would not 
come so as to marry them that night. But he 
came at last ; and the poor girl was relieved. 

I have said that T came to praise not to censure, 
but I suppose you have vices amongst you, though, 
I think, as few as any town of its size. One of 
the best helpers I had in starting and building up 
the town had peculiar and very rigid notions on 
the subject of temperance. He did not want a 
drop of liquor sold in the town, and was deter- 
mined there should not be if he could help it- 
He made war upon the settlers and got up a great 



156 HISTORY OF THE 

trouble with them, making for himself many ene- 
mies. They took the wheels from his carriage 
and hid them in the pond; they disfigured his 
horse, besmeared his sign, and behaved badly with 
him. He then used to wish he had soveieign 
power, he would banish liquor from the world. 
But time rolled on ; he went into the army, and 
became Provost Marshal of a large Southern city, 
with all the power he could sigh for, but he found, 
as he told me, that with all his power, he could 
not banish it from use; some men will have it. 
His views are changed on that subject. The tares 
and wheat will grow up together, even in this 
moral town of Ripon. 

Twenty years ago, when the commnnity resorted 
to hot bricks, and perhaps a little No. 6, for medi- 
cine, we had no drug stores. Perhaps Mr. Nor- 
throp or Mr. Starr might have supplied you with 
opodeldoc or pain-killer; but that would have 
been all. Now you have three fine and extensive 
establishments, the fixtures of which alone are 
worth more than the whole of Ripon was then. 

Now you have extensive stocks of boots and 
shoes, but twenty years ago the best you could do 
was to get a pair of stogies of Mr. Starr. I re- 
member one pair that he sold. An immigrant 



CITY OF R1PON. 157 

who had just moved into the town of Rosendale, 
walked into Ceresco barefooted to get himself 
boots. He said he had a pair of calfskin boots at 
home, but for every day use they were too costive ! 
Mr. Starr sold him a pair less costive 

1, might go on for hours with these comparisons, 
and with anecdotes and incidents that would per- 
haps be interesting — and there are many that I 
should like to speak of — but I have talked long 
enough for this occasion, and will draw to a close 
after I have said a word for the ladies'. 

If we had a milliner shop twenty one years ago 
the business was poor, for at that time our ladies 
were glad to trim over their old bonnets, and make 
the new ones themselves. But now it is changed 
— in war times the business was prosperous, and 
the shops made money, and built up several fine 
establishments for you, who keep up with the 
fashions and tastes of the day. 1 think the gen- 
tlemen who have to pay the bills, should be thank- 
ful for the late improvements, for a ladies' hat 
used to cost ten dollars and upwards; but they 
must be cheaper now, they are so very small. I 
do not mean to ridicule the fashions, for I like to 
see a well dressed lady, and see her dress in the 
fashion. Gentlemen who travel much know how 



158 HISTORY OF THE 

a well dressed lady look^ to them after making a 
trip up in the back -woods, where the poor woman 
has to work hard and go barefooted. No, all 
would dress well if they could ; do not envy the 
well dressed, for you will all do so when you can ; 
and I like it. 

Now, take Ripon as it was, and compare it with 
the present, and are we not all satisfied with its 
progress ? Take Ripon as she is and compare her 
with other towns, and is there not full reason to 
be proud of her ? I could go on all night in her 
praise ; but you know it, and with me are proud 
of your place. 

I have talked mostly of your town, but it is 
to your country and farmers that you owe your 
growth. You had your Beardsleys, your Wests, 
your Kelloggs, Lights, Osborns, Higleys, Millers, 
Turners, Taylors, and hosts of other good fellows — 
and Geoige was not the least amongst them, — to 
back you ; names that have always stood by 
Ripon. And may they never leave to look for a 
better country, for they can not find it this side of 
Jordan. I believe as my stuttering friend told the 
hoosier who was looking for the best and healthiest 
country. He had traveled far to find such a place 
and felt anxious upon the subject; and when told 



CITY OF RIPON 159 

by my friend that he did not know of but one bet- 
ter and healthier than this, inquired at once where 
that was. The answer came out in that dry man- 
ner which some of you will recollect, "H-e-a-v-e-n !" 



160 HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER IX. 

DEATH OF MY WIFE. 

In the niidst of Life, Death must keep pace and 
make its demands upon the living. And here, 
while pursuing my daily cares, he asked me to 
surrender a much loved wife, with whom I had 
lived through many years of joy and sorrow ; she 
who only a short time before had so kindly soft- 
ened the pillow of my mute brother, had to have 
the same sad duty performed for her. Here let 
me say to the reader, how little we know of this 
world, or another. The mind is held by so small 
a thread, that twice in the course of my life there 
appears to have been almost a blank ; once when 
losing about all of my property in the sinking of 
a steamboat, and now in the loss of a w if e. There 
is a space ; and when I try to run back in my 
memory and call to mind things that transpired, I 
am lost. In this last blow I almost lost mind and 
all, for she was with me in prosperity and adver- 
sity and was always the same; ready to help to 



CITY OF RIPON. 161 

cheer up and help face the frowns of fortune. 
But she was gone, and I was alone in the world, 
except my wife's maiden sister, who had lived with 
us since she was nine years of age. She was 
called Aunt Mary; almost every family has an 
A ant Mary in it. 

My children were married and gone for them- 
selves, so I resolved to break up my home, and 
Aunt Mary went to live with a sister in a distant 
part of the State, leaving me quite alone. Aunt 
Mary had been in the family as child, sister, help, 
had assisted in bringing up my family, and was 
much endeared to us in all these relations. I 
had taken great pains to give her a liberal edu- 
cation, and had taught her music and every 
little accomplishment, for all through my pros- 
perity I had the means to do it, and she was an 
accomplished woman. I bought her a piano and 
parlor organ and had her taught to play them 
well, and when I came in wearied from my busi- 
ness I would sit down for a little rest, and say, 
" Mary, please play me a lively tune and sing a 
song," and she was always ready to please me in 
that way. But she went to visit a brother, who 
was a Methodist clergyman, in Delaware, and 
while there attended a religious revival, became a 
21 



162 HISTORY OF THE 

convert, and was taught that the Lord would not 
be well pleased with her if she played those lively 
tunes upon the piano — tunes that had been ray 
delight in moments of weariness. I lost so much 
by the revival. As she was not a hypocrite, and 
really believed in what she had heard, I did not 
insist upon her playing them. Some time after- 
wards, upon entering the house I heard some one 
in the parlor playing "Roy's Wife" upon the 
piano, and I said to my wife, "Who have you got 
for company in the parlor, playing the piano?" 
"There is no one but' Aunt Mary," she replied. 
"No," said I, "it can not be her, for they are play- 
ing "Roy's Wife." "Well," said she, "there is no 
one that I know of." I stepped to the door, and 
it was Aunt Mary; she had come across a work 
called "The Southern Harp," containing religious 
hymns set to lively tunes, such as "Roy's Wife" 
and "Old DaL Tucker;" so I got back my tunes — 
the words I could think. 

But Aunt Mary was dissatisfied away from 
my family, and kept writing to me, urging 
me to commence housekeeping again, so I re- 
solved to make them a holiday visit about 
New Years, and, while on that visit, I proposed 
that she should return to Ripon and keep house 



CITY OF RIPON. 163 

for me. She was willing to come, but her sister 
said, "No, you can not go with the Captain, unless 
he marries you." This was the first thought of 
the kind that had entered my mind. She had 
lived with me in almost every relationship but 
that of wife, and I had loved her as a sister, an 
adopted daughter and a friend, but this put us to 
the blush. I could make no other terms with her 
sister in order to have her return, so we had to 
submit, and when the visit at my brother-in-law's 
closed, he got the clergyman to say she might go 
back with me, and we returned to Ripon. She 
made a good wife, and for one act of her's I give 
her praise. She was, as you have learned, a good 
Methodist sister, and on a certain occasion she 
was approached by another sister who said : 

"Sister Mapes, do you know that your husband 
is talked about ?" 

"Well," she replied, "what do they say of my 
husband V 

" Why, they say he is fond of women." 

"Has he ever been rude to you?" 

" Oh, no ! He has always been the gentleman to 
me?" 

"Sister ", said my wife, "I have known my 

husband ever since I was a child, and I think I 



164 H1STOEY OF THE 

know him well ; when he is rude to you it will be 
soon enough for you to come to me about him, and 
not until then." 

In the early part of this history I omitted 
giving an account of my military exploits. I 
omitted my first exploit, and I will now give it, so 
that you may know why I became a military officer 
with my hat-crown full of commissions. When 
but a boy, I went on horse-back from Coxsackie 
(the town of my birth) to Vent, to visit my sister 
who had married Mr. Barlow, a merchant in Del- 
aware County, N. Y., a distance of about fifty 
miles. While there I saw a gun in Mr. Barlow's 
store, and asked the privilege of inspecting it. 
While lookiDg it over, my brother-in-law asked me 
if I would like to own that gun. I said that I 
would, as 1 had not, up to that time, ever shot a 
gun. He then told me that if I would carry the 
gun home with me, on horse-back, f might have it. 
He did not think that I would do it; but he was 
mistaken, for I had that gun on my shoulder when 
I bid my friends good-bye. I have always thought 
that it was the gun that shortened my visit, as I 
was extremely anxious to try my skill as a hunter. 
So home I went, and made haste to get ammunition 
for the trial; the powder and shot was obtained, 



CITY OF RIPON. 165 

but I did not know the necessary quantity required 
for a load, but I meant to make a sure thing of it 
anyway. The first object that I saw to shoot was 
a red headed wood-pecker that was sitting on an 
old, dry tree, pecking away for his dinner. I 
thought that I would be able to carry his red head 
home with me, as a trophy of my skill as a hunter; 
so, to make a sure thing of it, I got over a rail 
fence and pointed for the bird, and pulled away ; 
the charge was so large that it sent me sprawling 
in one direction and the bird in the other. The 
gun I kept, but sold the ammunition, and have 
never shot a gun since then. My first wife used 
to remind me of it whenever I put on my regimen- 
tals for a grand dress parade, by asking me if I 
was the man that shot the wood-pecker. It would 
generally bring me down 

This shooting business I have never liked since, 
although I once threatened an object meaner than 
that bird, the circumstances of which I will here 
relate: During the war of the rebellion a regi- 
ment, known as the First Wisconsin Cavalry, was 
raised at Ripon, and Ed. Daniels was placed in 
command. The regiment was composed of as 
noble a set of men as ever went into the service — 
" barring " the Colonel, of whom I need not speak 



1G6 HISTOKY OF THE 

for he has proved his unfitness for any post of 
trust. At the time the regiment was assembling 
at Ripon, my son and wife and James Lambert 
were running a newspaper, and the officers and 
men of the regiment got up a petition to the Gov- 
ernor for the removal of Daniels, and brought it 
to my son to have it published in the paper, and 
it was being set up for insertion in the next issue. 
To prevent it from appearing, Daniels hired some 
vagabonds, whom he kept about his house, to go 
into the office, while my son and wife were 
at tea, and break it up, throwing the type into 
the streets, and demolishing the windows. This 
was in the fall of 1861, during a cold snow-storm. 
In the morning the office was a desolate sight; all 
that my son's family depended upon for a living 
having been destroyed by Daniels. My son had 
just tied up all his means in the Ripon and Wolf 
River Railroad, and had only the press for the sup- 
port of his family, and as winter was just setting in 
it was gloomy indeed ; and when I came into the 
office I found my son's wife, who had come there 
to commence her daily toil of setting type, and 
she in tears ; you may well imagine my feelings. 
I went to one of my sons and got a bill of what 
was destroyed, and I told him to make it out 



CITY OF RIPON 167 

against the scamp Daniels. He done so, and I 
took the bill, together with a revolver that I had 
got of D. Greenway, with instructions to use it if 
the bill was not paid, and I was determined that 
he should pay the bill or fare worse than the 
wood-pecker that flew away, I started for him. 
He was mounted and riding at great speed, giving 
orders and having his regiment removed to Racine 
before there could be action taken against him. I 
placed myself at the corner of the street, by the 
Baptist Church, waiting his approach to make the 
demand. During these preparations, my son and 
Judge Mayham had heard of my doings, at D. 
Greenway's, and fearing that something wrong 
might grow out of it, they went in pursuit of me, 
and found me, one hand holdine: the horses bit, 
and the other holding the revolver, making the 
demands. They caught me around my arms, and 
told Daniels, the scamp, to save himself by flight, 
which he done. But he was a white man, as far 
a^> color is concerned, and he ran his horse at the 
top of his speed, got into a car and put a double 
guard about it until the train moved off with the 
regiment. 

At the time of my writing this history of 
Daniels, the post boy came in with this letter and 



168 HISTORY OF THE 

the article enclosed, and I think it fitting to insert 
it just here as a part of the history. This letter 
is from Senator G. W. Mitchell, who has repre- 
sented this Ripon district in the State Senate since 
the occurrence of these acts, and has held other 
prominent offices in this place, and was living here 
in Ripon at the time it occurred. 

Dubuque, Iowa, Feb. 1, 1878. 
Dear Capt : 

I cut from a paper the enclosed re- 
poit of Col. Richard Daniels, which I enclose 
hoping it may serve you in writing up your life ; 
as the newspaper men say, it furnishes an item. 
In haste, 

Yours truly, 

G. W. Mitchell. 

COL. EDWARD DANIELS. 

From the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Common- 
wealth, we take the following : 

Col. Edward Daniels, being an outlaw and a 
thief, is just about the style of a man the Re- 
publicans of Virginia, or the Republicans of any 
where else, are likely to respect. Such a person 
makes a magnificent representative of such a 
party. 



CITY OF RIPON. 169 

In 1860, this Edward Daniels, in company with 
Oscar Hugh LaGrange and several others, went 
into the federal building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
and liberated therefrom one S. M. Booth, who was 
held for the violation of a federal law. When 
the United States Marshals were sent to re-capture 
the escaped criminal, Daniels and LaGrange 
organized mobs who paraded the streets of the 
quiet little city of Kipon on Sunday, making a 
great display of guns, and bidding positive 
defiance to the laws and authorities of the United 
States. 

A year later, this Daniels, who had been such a 
furious States Rights man, began the organization 
of a cavalry regiment, with which to invade cer- 
tain States, whose citizens, like himself, Booth, 
LaGrange, and the Republicans of Wisconsin 
generally, had bid defiance to the federal authori- 
ty. The organization and equipment of this regi- 
ment had not been authorized by the State, nor 
had any authority to proceed with it been receiv- 
ed from the United States. However, recruiting 
for it went forward during the summer of 1861, 
and its fragments went into camp at Ripon. 

With his usual foresight and sagacity, " Colonel 
Edward Daniels" had gathered together several 
22 



170 HISTOEY OF THE 

hundred men without any means of feeding or 
providing for them. But what did he care for 
this ? Was he not the self -constituted colonel of 
the regiment ? To be sure he was, and " Colonel 
Edward Daniels " in time became so much a 
Colonel that one day at drill he dextrously and 
corageously cut off the ear of his horse by the 
clumsy manipulating of his sword. A another 
time a lady who was on the parade ground had a 
new silk dress ruined and was nearly slaughtered 
by the brave "Colonel Edward Daniels," whose 
sword — that unfurtnnate instrument — parted with 
his hand while " Colonel Edward Daniels " was 
nobly brandishing it in mid-air. 

The generous-hearted citizens took compassion 
on those who had arrived in camp, and for weeks 
supplied them with food, with blankets and cloth- 
ing. Almost every house in the city was appeal- 
ed to, and almost every one gave more or less. In 
time the regiment received the sanction of the 
authorities, and then " Colonel Edward Daniels " 
presented a bill for keeping the regiment, for food 
and clothing supplied, and got the pay, which he 
magnanimously put into his own pocket. The 
generosity and humanity of the people were his 
profit. 



CITY OF RIPON. 171 

The Ripon Star, a semi-weekly newspaper, 
owned and edited by Mapes and Lambert, had the 
courage to expose these thieving outrages of " Col- 
onel Edward Daniels." The exposures struck him 
so tenderly that "Colonel Edward Daniels" de- 
tailed about him one hundred of his lacqueys, 
chief of whom was a Lieutenant Hobbs, and these 
on the night of September 21, 1861, mobbed the 
office of the Star, throwing its type and cases and 
materia] out of the window into the street. "Col- 
onel Edward Daniels" took good pains not to be 
in town at the time of this outlawry, but his 
lacqueys made no secret of the fact that he had 
ordered the destruction. The next morning the 
regiment took an early extra train and went into 
camp in another part of the State. Although the 
Republicans outnumbered the Democrats three to 
one, it was altogether too hot there for "Colonel 
Edward Daniels," for there he was too well known; 

An outlaw and thief ! 

"Colonel Edward Daniels" is a good man for 
the scallawags and carpet-baggers and negroes — 
who are called the Republican party in that 
State — to honor. And yet when the Republican 
party of Virginia has any chance of success it 
even will not nominate "Colonel Edward Daniels.' 1 



172 HISTORY OF THE 

And of all that can be said of this, our times 
perhaps, it ill becomes me to speak disrespectfully 
of such men as this Daniels, who, by his position, 
is taken into what is called the first society, as I 
see by the meeting in Washington, in honor of 
Senator Howe. AmoDg the great men of Wiscon- 
sin appears the name of Col. Edward Daniels. If 
justice was done him he would be looking through 
the bars of a prison door. But such are the aris- 
tocracy of America to-day, and all that is needed 
to place yourself among them, is the dollars. If 
you think I censure to harshly, read the papers of 
the day and see the investigations of bribery and 
corruption going on in the land, and then say if I 
am to severe. They say that when matters get at 
the worst they mend — pray that they may menft 
soon, for Heaven knows they are bad enough now. 
But I cannot write with any patience when my son 
and daughter, who had been laboring for the im- 
provement and prosperity of the country, should 
lose their litlle all by such villains, and never get 
one cent for it, while such men as Daniels, and oth- 
ers that I mi^ht mention, are holding all of the 
best offices of the place, when they never lifted a 
hand but for themselves. I had thought that I 
might live to see my country redeemed from their 



CITY OF KIPON. 173 

hands; that I might have said with good old Simeon, 
" Now let Thy servant depart in peace, for my eyes 
hath seen her salvation;" but it looks doubtful at 
present. 

Tn giving the history of myself and Ripon, it 
becomes proper to speak of the wars we have been 
through, and taken a part in. I will now speak 
of the Booth war that occurred in Ripon. There 
was a colored man brought to the jail of Milwau- 
kee for safe keeping, until his owner could come 
and claim him under the fugitive slave law of the 
United States. When the owner came for him 
Sherman M. Booth, who was at this time, editing 
a paper in Milwaukee, called the Free Democrat, 
learning that the negro was to be taken by the 
laws of the United States, mounted a horse in mid- 
day and rode through the streets of Milwaukee, 
shouting at the top of his voice, " Freeman to the 
rescue, to the rescue ! " A mob followed him to 
the jail, and throwing open the doors they took the 
negro out and passed him on to Racine, and so out 
of the hands of the Government. For this Booth 
was arrested and tried, and fined two thousand 
dollars and one year's imprisonment, and if the fine 
was not paid at the end of the year, to remain in 
prison until it was paid. The United States hav- 



174 HISTORY OF THE 

ing no prison in the State but the Government 
Custom House, at Milwaukee, they kept him in 
that for a year; and as the two thousand dollars 
was not paid then, he had to remain there until 
some sympathising friends at Ripon conceived a 
plan to liberate him from prison. A conspiracy 
was formed and, by forged papers to the keeper, 
admission to the prison obtained, and Booth liber- 
ated at mid-day. He was taken by team to a 
railroad station six miles west of Milwaukee, and 
thence to Ripon, the den of his liberators, who 
fondly protected him. Here he remained for some- 
days, defying the whole power of the United 
States Government. Such was the loyalty of the 
then majority of the citizens of Ripon that the 
officers who came to arrest him could not find 
him; so they arrested some of the conspirators 
and escorted them to the depot, where they were 
beset by an armed mob who rescued the prisoners 
and compelled the officers to return empty-handed. 
After this, Booth came out of his hiding-place, 
and gave notice that he would deliver public 
speeches at the City Hall and in the groves. The 
United States Couit again sent a Marshal to effect 
his recapture This officer put up at the Mapes 
House, and there remained until Booth had com- 



CITY OF RIPON. 175 

menced speaking at the hall, whither he proceeded 
and, displaying the process from the Court, at- 
tempted his arrest. The entire audience arose in 
one infuriated mob, and threatened to kill the 
Marshal before Booth should be taken. They 
then seized the Marshal, dragged him from the 
hall, and threw him down stairs into the street, 
crying, "Kill him, kill him!" and I think they 
would have done so had he not hurriedly returned 
to the hotel for protection, and even there my son 
and I were compelled to stand at the foot of the 
stairs and, by main force, deter this mob of loyal 
citizens from committing further violence. 

Booth then visited the radical villages, making 
harangues against the Grovernment, and defying 
the laws of the country. At Berlin arrangements 
had been made whereby he could hold forth in one 
of the churches of that village, for the churches in 
this region were all loyal on the wrong side, 
excepting the Episcopal and Catholic, and to their 
praise be it said, they were truly loyal and would 
not join in against the Government. Marshal 
Taylor, of Berlin, immediately took measures to 
secure his speedy return to prison, and called on 
the law-and-order portion of Bipon's citizens, to- 
gether with a few Mil waukeeans, to assist in car- 



176 HISTORY OF THE 

rying out the programme. The railroad was then 
in charge of Lindsey Ward and Levi Blossom, who 
also assisted, and, at the time appointed, an engine 
and caboose was in waiting, fired up and ready 
for a run. The meeting was held in the church, 
agreeable to notice, and Booth incited the good 
radicals of Berlin against the Government, and 
again defied its laws. At the close of the meeting 
he was taken in charge by two Berlin ladies, and 
a company of what were at that time called 
4 ' Wide- A wakes" escorted the trio until they 
considered them beyond the reach of danger. 
But the Marshal, backed by Mr. Rundel and the 
friends from Ripon, were in waiting for him, and 
Cooley, the livery man, had a team in readiness 
close by. Rundel seized Booth and laid him gently 
in the carriage which was quickly driven to the 
waiting train, to which he was transferred, and 
was soon speeding to Milwaukee, where the morn- 
ing sun found him safely ensconsed in the Cus- 
tom House. Here he remained until the Govern- 
ment let him out. I hope it has made him a 
better citizen, and that he has learned to obey the 
laws of the country. 



CITY OF RIPON. 177 



CHAPTER X. 

TRAVELING FOR THE MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION. 

I will give a chapter of my life and times in a 
new business, for me, In my struggles to build 
the Ripon and Wolf River Railroad, I had to talk 
to the business men of Milwaukee to get from 
them the ten thousand dollars to purchase the iron 
for our road. At that time there was a great com- 
petition, between Milwaukee and Chicago, for the 
State trade, so the Merchants' Association of Mil- 
waukee conceived the project of employing a suit- 
able man to travel and solicit the trade of the 
States of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa; they 
thought that if I could talk them out of ten thous- 
and dollars in one night, at the chamber of Com- 
merce, I would do to travel for their interest. So 
they gave me a call, as the clergymen say, and I 
accepted, as I had my City of Ripon under good 
headway, and had the misfortune to lose a good 
wife, whose obituary notice I will here insert: 

"Died, on the 19th of January, 1864, after a 
23 



178 HISTORY OF THE 

short illness, Mary C, wife of Capt. D. P. Mapes, 
aged fifty years. 

"The deceased was one of the first who under- 
went the many hardships incident to a pioneer life 
in this portion of Wisconsin, and has ever, by her 
many truly Christian virtues, endeared herself to 
all who knew her. Those of 'her friends who were 

a, 

with her when her spirit took its flight, know that 
she has but fallen asleep." 

I went to work for the Milwaukee commercial 
interests with a will — and let me hear say that I 
had a high opinion of the business men of Mil- 
waukee — for at the time I labored for them the 
Association was made up of high-minded, honora- 
ble business men, at least, that part of them that 
were my employers. I will here insert a list of the 
first-class and reliable wholesale merchants of Mil- 
waukee, Wisconsin, July 1st, 1863. 

Boots and Shoes. — Atkins, Steele & White; 
Bradley & Metcalf ; A. F. Clarke & Co. 

Clothing.- — H. Friend & Bros.; Wells, Simonds 
&Co. 

Crockery and Glassware. — Blair & Persons. 

Drugs, Paints and Oils. — Greene & Button ; 
John Rice. 

Dry Goods. — James Bonnell; Bradford Bros.; 



CITY OF RLPON. 179 

J. L. Davis & Co.; Sexton Bros. &> Co.; Young & 
French. 

Grocers. — G. Bremer & Co.: John Dahlman & 
Co.. Dutcher, Ball & Goodrich; Cordes & Wets- 
kisch; Goodrich & Terry; Inbusch Brothers; Lit- 
tell <fc Smith; Wm. M Sinclair; Warren, Hewitt 
& Baker. 

Hardware and Tinners' Stock. — Brockhaus 
& Merkens; John Nazro & Co.; Kellogg Sexton. 

Leather and Hide Dealers. — Wisconsin Leath 
er Co. 

Saddlery Hardware. — Geo. Dyer & Co. 

Stoves and Tinners' Stock. — Geo. Williamson 
<fcCo. 

Hardware and Agricultural Implements.— 
Lefevre, Green & Co. 

Tobacco and Cigar Manufacturers. — F. F. 
Adams <fe Co ; S. G. Spaulding. 

Books and Stationers. — S. C. West. 

In four years constant travel I never heard a man 
say aught against one of those firms; but all joined 
as one, in saying, that with all their dealings with 
them everything was satisfactory. I was proud to 
be employed by such men, and help them build up 
a great trade along side of a competition from her 
sister city, Chicago. 



180 HISTORY OF THE 

In those travels for Milwaukee, I took with me 
the above cards to be put up in all the business 
places and stores throughout Wisconsin, Minne- 
sota and Northern Iowa. My business was to 
make the acquaintance of merchants, learn their 
standing, show them the routes by which they 
could ship their goods from Milwaukee to their 
places of business, speak well of the different 
firms they would find in Milwaukee, and hear 
complaints if any ; but, as I have before stated, in 
those four years of constant travel I never heard 
a complaint, and to this Milwaukee may largely as. 
cribe the prosperity of her city. In making these 
acquaintances throughout the country, I found, in 
many places, a strong prejudice against the regular 
drummers, as they were sometimes called, for some 
of them had rendered themselves obnoxious by 
their importunities; but the feeling was only 
against those who really were bores, for the greater 
portion of them were gentlemen in every sense of 
the term, and with such I was always pleased to 
meet in my travels. I would here say to firms 
sending out agents, send out men who have studied 
men as well as the price of the wares they exhibit, 
and you will not have them called bores, and 
merchants will be glad to see them. 



CITY OF KLPON. 181 

I had no goods to sell, and had only to attract 
the attention of the business men in the country 
to Milwaukee, but I found men always and every- 
where made of the same material ; the same motive 
moves and actuates them. Men in every situation 
of life love to be praised, and I found that I must 
make men pleased with themselves before they will 
be pleased with you or listen to your story. In 
one of my excursions through Northern Iowa, on 
a route then seldom canvassed by Milwaukeeans 
I arrived at a town of considerable business on a 
Saturday night, and having found a good hotel, 
concluded to stop and spend the Sabbath. In the 
morning I attended services in an Episcopal 
church (that being my preference), and found a 
well-dressed congregation, one of whom handed me 
a prayer book. During the services the responses 
were full and clear, and as one man seemed to lead 
well, I kept up as I was wont to do in my church 
at Ripon. The discourse was one I am inclined 
to speak well of. On Monday I commenced busi- 
ness and was well received by the merchants, who 
seemed to be well pleased to make my acquaint- 
ance, until I came to the largest establishment in 
the town, which contained a large stock of all the 
different kind of goods usually kept in a country 



182 HISTORY OF THE 

store. I made my bow to a man engaged in sell- 
ing goods to an old lady, and inquired if the prin- 
cipal of the house was in; he directed me to 
a person quite at the extreme end of the store, 
whom I approached and saluted with a "Good 
morning," but his response was not as loud and 
distinct as it was at church the day before, for it 
was he with whom I had attempted to keep up 
during the service. I asked him if he ever bought 
goods in Milwaukee, but he answered, u No! I 
buy my goods in New York!" and turning 
abruptly upon his heel, left me standing alone at 
the back end of a very long store. I thought he 
had treated me rather rudely, and my first impulse 
was to get out of his way, but I did not know 
how to leave the great store in so ungraceful a 
manner, so I took a survey of the man and said to 
myself, " I have seen men as large as you, and there 
must be some avenue to you." Walking slowly 
down the store until nearly opposite him, I said : 

"You have the largest stock of goods I have 
seen in some time; I am looking through your 
town not to sell goods for any particular house 
but just to make acquaintances, and have found 
it a most beautiful place, with excellent water- 
power and fine mills, and everything appears in a 



CITY OF RrPON. 183 

prosperous condition ; I shall have a good report 
to make of it. I attended the Episcopal Chuich 
yesterday and heard a good sermon, but was most 
pleased with the way the congregation made their 
responses. In going through your business houses 
this morning I have met with the most kind and 
gentlemanly treatment that T have yet experienced 
in my travels. I leave with those whose acquaint" 
ance I make this general card of the wholesale 
houses of Milwaukee ; will you please put one up 
in a conspicuous place in your store?" 

u Most certainly /" he replied. 

"My name is Mapes," I continued, and I am 
pleased with my visit to your beautiful town." 

" Mr. Mapes, how long do you remain in our 
town ?" he asked. 

" I shall leave on the evening train." 

"Well, Mr. Mapes, I keep a horse and carriage 
and would be pleased, if you have time, to show 
you over the town." 

"Most certainly, I should be happy to have 
you do so." 

On our ride we passed his residence, and he 
insisted upon my dining with him. He found 
that he was out of an article of stoga boots, and 
referring to the general card, saw that Atkins, 



184 HISTORY OF THE 

Steele & White were dealers in and manufacturers 
of that article. He asked rne if it was a good 
house, and I told him it was one of the best in the 
city, so to them the order was sent, and before I 
got around to Milwaukee again it had been dupli- 
cated. Milwaukee has since had a good trade 
from that direction. I have found, in all my trav- 
els, that it costs nothing to be civil. 

While traveling in Minnesota I saw a sign of a 
millinery store, and the name was one I had been 
acquainted with in Wisconsin, so I stepped in. 
I found a well stocked shop, with a fine assortment 
of goods, but did not see the old acquaintance that 
I was lead to suppose was there by the name I had 
seen on the sign, so I asked for Mrs. P. 

"That is my name/'' says the lady. 

"I beg your pardon then, for making this inqui- 
ry, I had supposed that I would find an old ac- 
quaintance of your name." 

" Where did you know a Mrs. P ? " 

"At F. L., in Wisconsin." 

" I came from there," she said, " and was acquain- 
ted with your friend. The good-for-nothing thing- 
ran away with my husband, to California, and 
took all I was worth with them." 

Now, hear I was in a fix. I had acknowledged 



CITY OF RIPON. 185 

that the good-for-nothing thing, as she called her, 
was an old acquaintance of mine, and that I was 
looking her up. But I had to get out of it in 
some way, and thought I would fall back on my 
stock of kind words. I commenced, by saying 
that I called solely in a business way, as I was 
traveling for the commercial interests of Milwau- 
kee merchants. I then asked her if she ever pur- 
chased goods at Milwaukee. She said, "Yes, I 
have, but I want no more dealings there, for when 
my husband ran away with all I had, I went to 
Milwaukee to get trusted for a small stock of my 
kind of goods, but I could not get credit for a 
cent's worth, so I went to Chicago and got all the 
goods I wanted, and now I want nothing to do 
with your Milwaukee merchants " This headed 
me off again, but I commenced by saying what a 
fine shop and stock of goods she had ; how, f roni 
the number of customers, she must be doing a 
first-rate business ; and what a villian her hnsband 
must have been to have left so beautiful a woman 
and gone off with that ill-favored creature who 
did not begin to compare with her. And indeed 
she did not, for this was a fine-looking lady, and 
when I told her so I but told the truth. I hold 
that the truth is not flattery, and I have never y< t 
24 



186 HISTORY OF THE 

said anything to a lady that I did not mean, for 
this I have held to all through life. When I left 
my new Mrs. P., she said that she did not know 
but that she was rather severe on the Milwaukee 
merchants for she was very poor when she asked 
for credit, and promised to take Milwaukee in the 
route when she went after goods again. So you 
see that you must make them think well of them- 
selves through your good opinion of them, before 
you can reach them; and this is all right if you 
deal in facts, hence it is no flattery, and in speak- 
ing of the good qualities of those you address, be 
sure that they have those qualities and are well 
aware of it. 

In all my travels for Milwaukee, I labored hard 
to build up a lasting trade for her, and I have 
watched her growth with great solicitude, and she 
has done most nobly as against one of her com- 
petitors, the city of Chicago. Truly Chicago is a 
host to compete with; history has nowhere given 
us her equal; she built, was burned, and built 
again; nothing has come up to her; it is not all in 
her location, she has the business men on the cor- 
ners what does it. Milwaukee will have to em- 
ploy some one with a better horn than old Captain 
Mapes blowed to keep her in hearing distance of 



CITY OF KIPON. 187 

her Chicago competitor. But Milwaukee has 
done well, and is now spreading out her radius of 
railroads through a rich and beautiful country 
thus securing their surplus produce. 

City building has its secrets, and to those who 
have had no experience, I will make a few sugges- 
tions. To secure the patronage of country mer- 
chants from the interior you must have good 
hotels and good places of amusement; in fact you 
must please the country merchant if you would 
have him visit your market. He not only wants 
his goods, but he makes the trip to the city after 
them one of recreation and pleasure. I remember 
while I was traveling for the interests of Milwau- 
kee I made a visit to Chicago to learn what was 
so attractive to the country merchant in that city, 
and played the spy. I pretended that I was after 
goods, and drew from the country merchant the 
reasons why they preferred Chicago. I said to 
one of them, "Have you got through with your 
purchases?" "Well," was the answer, "I could 
have finished up and gone to-day, but I want to 
go to the theater to-night, for I see by the bills 
that a favorite play is to come off, so I will stay 
spend another day." Another one said, "I come 
to Chicago to buy goods, and I also want to hear 



188 HISTOKY OF THE 

the Rev. Mr. Collier and shall stay over Sunday 
to hear him; we don't get such preaching in the 
country very often, and it is worth staying over 
to hear him.' 1 Milwaukeeans may take the hint. 
In early life I was a country merchant and went 
to the city of New York for goods, and heard the 
celebrated preachers, and have heard Forrest and 
Booth play at the theatres. There are many 
attractions in a large city, and this must all be 
looked to in making and keeping the trade of a 
city. You must think this a singular chapter 
recommending churches and theatres in the same 
paragraph, but they both go build up your com- 
mercial interest, and for this I have been laboring 
for years. For your spiritual welfare you must 
look to your clergy, for you pay them for that; 
but I suppose you have as high an order of talent 
as is found in any city of its size. 

In traveling for the Milwaukee Merchants I found 
the labor too ardous for a man of my age, so I sent in 
my resignation, and received a very complimentary 
letter from the Secretary of the Merchants' Asso- 
ciation, regretting my leaving their employment. 
When I came home from traveling for Milwaukee 
I found my house very lonely, as my second wife 
had been buried by the side of her sister in Ripon, 



CITY OF RIPON. 189 

and my children were all married and away, so,* 
dear leader, do you censure me for making the 
acquaintance of a worthy woman, who was a widow 
in our own town ? If you do it will make no dif- 
ference, for I have made myself happy in making 
that acquaintance. The consequences are, two 
bright little children, a girl of seven years and a 
boy of five, so if there is anything wrong in the 
matter it is not in those two little children. You 
may call this egotism, but call it what you like, I 
would not exchange my little family for the wealth 
of that old batchelor, Wm, B. Ogden, who started 
in life when and where I did, and now if he can 
count more dollars that I can I would not exchange 
places with him. If we all think well of ours we 
will always be satisfied with our lot. 

In the growth and advancement of Ripon, we 
felt the need of an agricultural association, and 
not being in the center of the county we could not 
have the county fairs at our city, so we went about 
it and got up one of our own. I took the matter 
in hand, as I knew every man that was able 
and would take an interest in it. It was got up 
by making a joint stock company, no one to take 
more than twenty-five dollars each, so that the 
stock should be well distributed through the coun- 



190 HTSTOKY OF THE 

ty, and that every leading man might bring his 
influence with him to the fair. The stockholders 
had free passes to the exhibitions, so that they 
would be sure to come and bring their neighbors 
with them, and in this way we got our crowds In 
getting up the stock of two hundred stockholders 
at twenty-five dollars each, which amount was 
sufficient to purchase the grounds and build the 
buildings suitable for our exhibitions, I was but 
thirty days. In thirty days more we had our 
buildings done and a track for racing finished, and 
held one of our fairs, and it was a success. We paid 
all of our premiums off and made a dividend of 
ten per cent, on the stock, and have gone on year 
after year with the greatest success, having funds 
invested in Government bonds. All this I claim 
as an enterprise of my own getting up, and to 
show how the stockholders viewed it I will insert 
the following extracts from the papers of that 
day. 

"a presentation. 
"On the evening of December 7th, 1866, quite 
an interesting affair came off at the Mapes House. 
A number of Captain Mapes' friends gathered in 
the hall for the purpose of presenting him with a 
slight token of their esteem for him as a citizsen 



CITY OF RIPON. 191 

and zealous worker in all enterprises calculated to 
benefit our city. The meeting was called to order 
and H. T. Hinton, appointed Chairman, and G. W. 
Peck, Secretary. Mr. Win. Taggart was called 
upon to state the object of the meeting. 
"mr. taggart's remarks. 
" Captain Mapes : — A portion of your fellow- 
citizens have ' appointed me to present to you this 
watch. The trinket possesses intrinsically but lit- 
tle value. Regarded as a testimonial of our appre- 
ciation of your services in founding this city, in 
steadily laboring to promote its interests, but 
especially in your late efforts to build up our 
Agricultural Association, we hope it will possess 
in your estimation some value. Accompanying this 
is a card containing the names of the donors. 
This cake basket you will please hand to your lady 
with our regards — our compliments. You have 
been so intimately associated with the interests of 
Ripon that your presence suggests its history. 
You have seen our prairie clothed with its carpet 
of primeval sreen; our city plat covered with 
trees and shrubs ; our little stream bounding over 
its rocky bed in its native freedom ; you have lived 
to see that prairie covered with growing crops; 
those trees and bushes supplanted by fine resi- 



192 HISTORY OF THE 

dences, stores and shops ; where herds of deers 
once roamed, now peaceful folks are feeding; the 
emigrant train gives place to the noisy locomotive ; 
and the little creek has been chained to do menial 
service to man. These great changes you have 
witnessed, and to their accomplishment you have 
materially contributed. We do not forget how 
boldly and with what forecast yourself and asso- 
ciates commenced, at an early period in the history 
of our city the building of a college which is now 
filled with students, and which is a credit at once 
to our city and State. And now, in the retire- 
ment of old age,— if such a man can ever retire 
fi'om active pursuits — we invoke heaven's choicest 
blessings upon you, and hope that your balance of 
life may be peaceful and happy. 

"The affair had been conducted on the sly, so 
that the Captain was completely surprised, and du- 
ly affected. When he overcame his emotions suf- 
ficient to speak, he acknowledged the compliment 
in a few fitting words. 

"the captain's reply. 

" Mr Chairman and Gentlemen of Bipon : — 
I can only say, I thank you most heartily for 
the manifestation of your good opinion of my ser- 
vices with you, in the effort to build up the insti- 



CITY OF RIPON. 193 

tution of your city, in presenting me with this 
donation from your kind and liberal hands Again 
I say, I thank you, and in receiving this donation 
at your hands I think much of the articles, but 
most of all, that I have so many friends. I have lived 
many years, and have had many friends, and some 
enemies, but a large majority of friends, which 
makes me willing to live on. Looking at this 
event reminds me of one of the presidents of the 
La Crosse Railroad. When the stockholders wanted 
to fill his place with another man they voted him 
a gold-headed cane, and let him down with that. 
But I hope you do not want to get rid of me in 
that way, for if you do you cannot, as I propose 
to stay with you and aid in future improvements!. 
And again I thank you for myself, and in behalf 
of my wife, for the present to her. They were 
all unexpected, and will be kept in kind remem- 
brance of - you all. I might go on with a little 
histoiy of your city, but my good friend Taggart 
has so eloquently alluded to it that T will forbear. 
And so good-night kind friends 

"The articles were a splendid silver watch, of 

American manufacture, with a heavy chain of the 

same material. On the inside case is engraved, 

'Presented to Capt. Mapes by his friends in Ripon.' 

25 



194 HISTORY OF THE 

The ^ake basket, intended for Mrs. Mapes, is a 
beautiful silver shell, of the latest style. Accom- 
panying these presents was a card, neatly framed, 
with the names of the donors neatly written, we 
might almost say engraved, by James Beynon." 

The following is an extract from the Ripon 
Commonwealth of the same week: 

" One of those pleasing incidents which are of 
somewhat rare occurrence, but which always 
gladdens the hearts of all who participate, took 
place in the office of the Mapes House on Satur- 
day last in the presence of some eighty or ninety 
persons ; it was the presentation of a watch and 
chain to Capt. D. P, Mapes and a cake basket to his 
lady. This presentation was made as a token of 
appreciation of the services of Captain Mapes in 
forwarding every public enterprise known to be 
identified with Ripon interests ever since Ripon 
had an existence. The Captain was taken wholly 
by surprise, and in which consisted the principal 
pleasure of the affair, for if he had known what 
was coming he would certainly have had a speech 
ready, and then his embarrassment, modesty and 
surprise could not have been seen. The whole 
affair was very neatly and appropriately con- 
ducted, but we must express our regret that a 



CITY OF RIPON. 195 

larger number of our citizens were not given an 
opportunity to subscribe to the fund, and have 
made the watch and chain of massive gold instead 
of silver, for the Captain has worked night and 
day for the interest of the city for the past twenty 
years, and he is worthy of a more magnificent gift 
at the hands of the people of Ripon. Thus has 
he labored for Ripon, and we should have really 
liked to see him receive a more valuable gift, 
though he will undoubtedly prize this as highly as 
if it were of more value. The associations and 
manner of presentation will make it to him and 
his family of more value than the commercial 
worth. We hope the Captain may live many 
years yet and be subjected to many more such 
surprises at the hands of his fellow-citizens." 

The following is an extract from the La Crosse 
Democrat of December 16th, 1866: 

'A number of the citizens of Ripon, in this 
State, recently presented Captain D. P. Mapes, the 
founder of that handsome burgh, with a valuable 
watch as a testimonial of respect and esteem. 
The Captain was the first person to design the 
building of a city where Ripon now stands. He 
built the first house, the first store, the first 
flouring-mill, was most active in building the 



196 HISTORY OF THE 

college (than which a better does not exist in the 
State), and at a later day he built a substantial 
hotel known as the Mapes House. He has given 
away many acres of land for the benefit of his 
city, only providing that they should be properly 
improved. His son, now an attorney at Fond du 
Lac, established the first newspaper ever printed 
at Bipon, and by their united exertions the town 
soon grew quite rapidly. The testimonial of 
respect was fully merited, and will be earnestly 
appreciated." 

One difficulty in the location of the City of 
Ripon was that it laid in the extreme corner of 
the county, but by the formation of the county, 
and its lakes, a county seat would be well located 
at Ripon. The surrounding towns were anxious 
to have a county made, and so arranged, that Ripon 
should be its center: but your humble author was 
on the wrong side of politics for favors, although 
the people about Ripon were willing to lay aside 
their politics for one year, as you will see by the 
following article published in an opposition paper: 

"Me. Editor: — As the time for making nomi- 
nations for our member of Assembly approaches, 
it behooves us to see that some man is nominated 
who will devote himself, heart and soul, to the 



CITY OF RIPON. 197 

great object Ripon has to accomplish. Who will 
bring to the work, in the Legislature, industry, 
energy and perseverance, to effect a division of the 
Counties of Marquette and Fond du Lac, making 
Ripon the county seat. 

"The project is viewed with favor by nine-tenths 
of the voters in what would constitue the new 
county, and if we can for once, trust to the world 
political to roll on by itself — if we can let the 
State subject of Kansas alone, and, looking as we 
ought to do, to our local interests, send some one 
to represent us who will effect this great thing for 
Ripon, it were surely better for us than to be fight- 
ing battles in which we have little or no interest. 

"Such a man, Mr. Editor, is the pioneer of our 
fair young city, Capt. Mapes. He can bring to the 
work all the essential qualities needed, and that 
he will effect the object if any man can, we have 
ample proof in the industry and fidelity he has 
ever manifested for the interest of Ripon. 

"Let us then objure politics for once, and send 
the Captain to the Legislature." 

But it was of no use, I was not nominated and 
the county not made, as the affairs of bleeding 
Kansas were of more account than to have Ripon 
made a county seat. 



198 HISTORY OF THE 

In building up Ripon Major Bovay proved one 
of my greatest aids. I well recollect his first 
arrival at the Ripon House, for at that moment I 
was busily expatiating to one of my guests upon 
the advantages of Ripon as a site for a beautiful 
inland town. The Major had come to Wisconsin 
to assist in building up a town, and this particular 
spot had been ably set forth by Warren Chase in 
letters to Horace Greeley of the New York 
Tribune, of which office the Major was a fre- 
quenter, having once edited a paper, published 
there, called Young America, the motto of which 
was, "Vote yourself a farm. 1 ' While at the 
Tribune office he got hold of some of Chase's 
letters describing this region, which pictured in 
his mind a perfect Western paradise, and he left 
New York with his family and came to Wis- 
consin, intent on seeing Ceresco, as this place was 
then callled. Leaving his family at Milwaukee, he 
tramped on foot to Fond du Lac, and thence to 
this place, where he arrived, as I have before 
stated, while I was displaying the beauties of 
Ripon and its future prospects The Major at 
once became a convert, and he has never back- 
slided from his faith in me, for he has been a 
boarder in the Mapes' family for more than five 



CITY OF RIPON. 199 

years,, and has been foiemost in every enterprise 
which would result in advantage to Ripon. Our 
political paths have not always run in the same 
direction, but in that we have found our account, 
as changes in party have frequently occurred; 
when his party was in power he would go to court 
for favors, and when my side was up I would go, 
and we were both lucky in carrying our points for 
Ripon. The Major was never burdened with the 
Quaker's curse — the spirit of building, but that 
made no difference so long as he kept with me 
who was so accursed. 

Thus far I have got on through life, and now, 
when I come to publish these manuscripts, I find 
my means too short to do it without an advance 
from my friends, for I have been, as Matt Carpen- 
ter, the United States Senator says of himself, 
" one of God's dispensing agents " through life, 
consequently there is not much in the bank to 
draw from. Many have complained that I have 
done too much for the public, and not cared enough 
for myself; but what if I have? If I pay my 
debts in full, and have sufficient to secure a 
respectful burial, what is the difference? I have 
taken great pleasure in being liberal with my own 
means, and what I have had through life I worked 



200 HISTORY OP THE 

for, and have never yet been charged with the 
want of industry. 

Stories of the early settlement of Ripon still 
occasionally appears in the papers. I propose to 
collect them into one book, as will be seen by the 
following from the Free Press of July 3d, 1873: 

"Captain D. P. Mapes of this city, although at 
present living in Winneconne, writes us that he 
has been for some time engaged in writing up a 
history of his life and that of the city of Ripon, 
its earliest and later days. After three-quarters 
of a century of hard work the Captain finds him- 
self poor. Although, like our somewhat distin- 
guished salary -grabber, Matt Carpenter, he has 
considered himself one of God's dispensing agents, 
still there is this noticeable difference, the Captain 
has dispensed from his own pile, till now he is 
compelled to ask subscriptions to his book in 
advance, to defray the expense of publication. 
Those who shall aid him in this way will receive 
honorable mention. He goes East soon to complete 
the manuscript and arrange for the forthcoming 
of the work. The copies subscribed for will be 
da\\\ ered upon his return. Some friend will take 
the subscription of those desiring to aid him. He 
ought to have a large list " 



CITY OF RIPON. 201 

The following sketch of the city appeared in 
the Milwaukee Journal of Commerce in June, 
1873: 

"A noted Frenchman bearing the name of 
Charles Fourier, started out as a philosopher with 
this theory : That man was the creature of cir- 
cumstances, that as his surroundings were pleasant 
or otherwise, so the man became good or other- 
wise. That, to remove the friction of a personal 
competition, society should be made up of what 
he called co-operative labor, and that all expendi- 
tures should be made on the same principle, from 
which it was expected to derive these several 
advantages, viz : The purchase of a home for the 
whole community; the ability to secure all the 
commodities which they had need of at wholesale 
prices; an organization through which could be 
marketed to the best advantage whatever they 
saw fit to produce. 

" A band of Fourierites entered the State — then 
Territory — of Wisconsin in the year 1844, organ- 
izing themselves into what was known as the 
'Wisconsin Phalanx,' and established their field of 
operations about half a mile west from the present 
center of the city of Ripon, and this was the 
earliest settlement of the township of Ripon — at 
26 



202 HISTORY OF THE 

that time called Ceresco. The chief leader of the 
Phalanx was the celebrated barren Chase, well 
knowD among all old political men of the State. 
For a few years the organization was prosperous, 
though some of them lead an indolent life, never 
working when not disposed, and always obtaining 
a livelihood through the exertions of their more 
industrious brethren whether they labored or not. 
A person of keen observation could not fail to be 
convinced that the workings of the Fourier system 
of life would result in failure, and in the year 
1859 it was found impossible to make human 
nature satisfied with its lot by any such means, 
and the property of the Phalanx was almost all 
disposed of during this year, and its members 
located themselves in different portions of the 
country. 

"In the year 1849 the first permanent settle- 
ment of Ripon was made by Captain David P. 
Mapes, who removed here and leased the water- 
power of Judge John S. Horner, and purchased a 
one-half interest in the village site. Captain 
Mapes erected a grist mill on the water-power, and 
since that year he has labored hard to make the 
site of his early home a city of importance, and to 
him, to a considerable extent, is due the steady, 



CITY OF EIPON. 



203 



permanent growth of the place. The Captain has 
nearly, or quite reached his allotted three score 
years and ten, but enjoys excellent health and has 
much vitality left. He is still among the first to 
aid, pecuniarily or otherwise, any new scheme 
which is likely to benefit his city." 




204 HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER X. 

WINNECONNE. 

After getting Ripon well started and the Woli 
River Railroad completed to the Wolf River at 
Winneconne, your author purchased a farm on the 
west side of the river, and had it platted and laid 
out for a town. 

The following is an article from the Evening 
Wisconsin, of Milwaukee, the matter for which I 
gave to Mr. Moore, who, at that time, was traveling 
correspondent for that paper. 

"advantage of position. 

"Winneconne is pratically at the junction of the 
Wolf and Fox Rivers, twelve miles above Oshkosh. 
There is no crossing point between Winneconne 
and Oshkosh, one side of the river being bordered 
by marshes. Nor is there any crossing point for 
a dozen miles up the river. Just above town the 
river widens into a broad bay, affording the safest 
harbor room for a thousand million of logs. The 
shores of the river and bay for miles, afford the 



CITY OF RIPON. 205 

best possible site for steam mills. It only needed 
a railroad outlet'here ten years ago to have secured 
nearly all 'of the thirty great lumber mills now 
driving away at Oshkosh. A splendid body of 
hard wood timber adjoins the town on the west, 
for twelve'or fifteen miles. The prairie openings 
extend for a dozen miles on the east, and are 
unsurpassed in the State for richness and produc- 
tion. All these advantages are apparent and 
secured, and it required only the strong arm of 
capital to build up mills, machine shops, foundrys* 
stores, and open direct lines of communication with 
the vast lumber and supply trade of Wolf River, 
to start Wmneconne in the rapid headway of 
advancement. Such strong arm of capital has 
recently been furnished by the 

THE RIPON BUILDING COMPANY. 

"Some time in August last, eight or ten wealthy 
clear-headed men from Ripon, purchased three 
forties of John S. Williams, on the west side, for 
$12,000, Williams reserving his resident block of 
two acres. The company stock was divided into 
twelve shares, and is now owned as follows: Gr. N. 
Lyman, three shares ; J. Bowen, banker, one share ; 
E. L. Northrup, banker, and P. Olmstead, three 
shares together; M. Pedrick, one share; Capt. D. 



206 HISTORY OF THE 

P. Mapes, one share; Hon. A. E. Bovay, two 
shares and Hon. Wm. Stan 1 , one share. The com- 
pany represent over a million and a half capital. 
Capt. Mapes, the well-known railroad man and 
founder of Bipon, is the agent in charge. The 
Captain has taken up his residence at Winneconne. 
His great energy, experience and clear judgment 
make him the man for the place. The company 
have laid off their plat with much taste and liber- 
ality — The main business street starts from the 
bridge, extending westward. The mills and found- 
ries will stretch far along up the river and bay. 
The resident lots, on the higher table, overlook 
the lake, river and the wide, reaching slope to the 
Fox River on the south. Business and resident 
lots are sold off daily, at moderate rates, and all 
the wards are thick and noisy with uncounted 
buildings going up in every quarter. 

"The Mapes House has also been fitted up in 
good style, and needs no other recommendation 
than the name of its landlord, Capt. Mapes. 

'* STEAMBOATS. 

"A daily line of steamboats from Oshkosh to 
New London, thirty miles north, stops at Winne- 
conne at nine in the morning — going north, and at 
two in the afternoon — going south. The ' Tigress' 



CITY OF BIPON. 207 

and ' Northwestern ' make the trip daily, alternat- 
ing each other. They take up an average of 
twenty tons of freight and fifty passengers at each 
trip during the season. The 'Berlin City' comes 
up from Berlin by the Fox River, reaching here 
at nine in the morning, thence back to Berlin in 
the evening. A boat is to be put on in the spring 
to make daily trips from here, to the west end of 
Lake Poygan. 

" STAGES. 

" Three daily lines of stages will run from here 
the coming winter, viz: One to Oshkosh, one to 
Young's Corners to connect with New London 
and Waupaca, and one to Poisippi to connect with 
Berlin. 

" HUNTING AND FISHING. 

" My Winneconne friends would hardly excuse 
me if I should omit to say that they had the best 
hunting and fishing grounds in 'four States.' 
Hundreds of fishermen are often crowded upon 
the bridge, hauling in pickerel, catfish, silver bass 
and sixty-pound sturgeons. The sturgeons are 
either jerked out with naked hooks, or they jump 
onto the bridge themselves. The river here never 
freezes, so the fishing season nevei ends. The 
lakes and marshes just above are alive with bird- 
game. Ducks by the million flood the lake at all 



208 HISTORY OF THE 

seasons, and snipe the marshes. Woodcock are 

plenty in July. A. H. Gardner, the old fur-buyer 

at Milwaukee, often visits here and takes a 

hunting-bout with the old-time sportsman, James 

Clark. 

"its name. 

"Winne-conne signifies the place of the skulls. 
Hundreds of Indians were slaughtered here in an 
ancient battle, and their bodies left exposed on 
the ground. Years afterwards as the Indian trav- 
elers came in from the West, and saw the white 
bones gleaming from the opposite shore, they 
were accustomed to the one exclamation, ' The 

skulls ! ' 

"location. 

" The location of Winneconne, as seen by the 

visitor at daylight, is one of extreme beauty. 

The broad, smooth river; the rounded and even 

banks receding into the park-like timber on the 

west, and the handsome prairie openings on the 

east; the wide, open lake above; the long, skirting 

line of forest and marsh beyond, —all make up a 

figuration rarely equalled in the postures of classic 

lands. In fact, this whole lower Wolf region may 

be set down as the classic land of the Indian. It 

was densely peopled for centuries. All along the 



CITY OF RIPON. 209 

eastern bank of the -river, avouDd Lake Poygan 
and the Little Buttes des Morts, were thickly 
scattered encampments and villages, dating far 
beyond the traditions of any living red man.. 
Besides the attractions of scenery, the Indians here 
found the greater attractions of fish and birds and 
wild rice, profusely abundant in the lakes and 
rivers. From here went out the deer-hunters to 
the higher regions of the Wolf, Black and Wis- 
consin rivers. Corn-planting patches are scattered 
all through the country. In the fall and spring, 
nearly all the Menominee and Potowotomie tribes 
gathered here for feasts and dances. 

"INDIAN TRADERS. 

"I have not at hand any account of the first 
Indian traders here. Old August Grignon had his 
trading post three miles below, before the time of 
the Black Hawk war. Here he contiDiied until 
the time of his death, in 1860. Old Chief Oshkosh 
always did his trading with Grignon, and spent 
much of his time in the neighborhood. Old Chief 
Sho-ne-nee, with his band, had their summer lodges 
here till the Indians were moved north. Wm. 
Bruce and H. M. Wright, both Green Bay men, 
put up a trading shanty on the east side of the 
river at Winneconne, as early as the time of the 
27 



210 HISTORY OF THE 

great Indian payment here of $40,000, in 1838. 
Thirty-five hundred Indians were present; also a 
company of soldiers from Fort Winnebago, and 
over a thousand white traders and visitors from the 
eastern part of the State. An eye witness informs 
us that nearly all the Indians and soldiers and 
traders got gloriously ' how-are-you ' at the winding 
up of the payment. 

"oldest resident. 

"John L. Williams, son of the famous Eleazar 
Williams, (of the Dauphin of France notoriety,) is 
the oldest white resident of Winneconne. 
"prospects ahead. 

"Captain Mapes believes that the town, now 
having a population of over twelve hundred, will 
quadruple its numbers and business within two 
years, and I think the Captain is right. There is 
no place that I have seen in the State where half 
as many steam mills, manufactories, and machine 
shops are being built and projected as at Winne- 
conne. The prospects of the place are best shown 
by the number and extent of the new 

"buildings and mills going up. 

"Since the coming of Captain Mapes here in 
August, over fifty buildings have been put up, 
and nearly as much more are in active state of 



CITY OF RIPON. 211 

prosecution. Among the rest is a new three-story 
brick hotel, 50x86 feet, to be completed this winter 
at a cost of $10,000. Messrs. Bovay & Lyman, 
of Kipon, are the contractors. Opposite the hotel 
is going up a block of four stories, with a brick 
front, and hall overhead. 

" Machine Shop and Foundry — Messrs. Wilson 
<fe Co., have just moved their machinery from 
Appleton and are putting up a foundry and 
machine shop, 36x138 feet, and will have it in full 
operation by the middle of December. 

"Steam Lumber Mill— Roddick, Parmenter, Wel- 
lington & Co., from Berlin, have nearly completed 
a large steam mill near the depot. The engine 
was made by Melms of Milwaukee, and is one of 
the heaviest in the State. It has three boilers 
twenty-four feet in length, with fourteen-inch 
flues. There will be two large rotary saws, shingle 
mill, lath mill and gang edgers. The mill is 140 
feet in length, and will turn out 110,000 feet of 
lumber every twelve hours. The company expect 
to move one of their large mills at Berlin to Win- 
neconne in the spring. They are running one saw 
here and have a full supply of all kinds of lumber 
for sale. 

" Planing Mill and Ship Yard—T. W. Lake, an 



212 HISTORY OF THE 

old resident here, has just completed a new planing 
and matching mill, 36x60 feet, just above Rod- 
dick's mill. His machinery is all new and of the 
first class. Next spring he will put in sash and 
door machinery. He has a large boat yard beside 
his mill. He built the 'Northwestern' and 'Berlin 
City' steamers, besides several schooners and tugs. 

"Steam Saw Mill — Mc Arthur, Leonard & Trask 
are running the saw mill, just above the planing 
mill. The mill was put up in 1864, and has a 
double rotary, gaug edger and lath mill. It has 
a most capital booming range just below the 
bridge, and is cutting out 30,000 daily. McArthur 
is an old pioneer-mill man, and one of the most 
active and extensive pine land operators in the 
state 

" Flour Mill — A large, first-class steam flour 
mill is to be put up in the spring, on the bridge 
corner, just north of Mc Arthur's mill. 

" Shingle Mill — A party from Fond du Lac have 
purchased lots, and will put up a large shingle 
mill in the spring, just above the new foundry. 

u Another Saw Mill — Redford & Co,, for Hor- 
tonville, will build a large steam saw mill, adjoin- 
ing the shingle mill, early next season. 

Another Flour Mill— Men on the east side have 



CITY OF R1P0N. 213 

decided to have a flour mill put up on the river 
bank, neaity opposite the depot. 

"Stave Mill — It is expected that a large stave 
mill will be started next season ; also a hub and 
spoke factory. 

U A Tannery would be a rich paying institution 
here, and the company are casting about for par- 
ties to take hold of it. Here is the place too, for 
manufactories of agricultural implements and 
cabinet works. 

" Wagon Shops — A steam power wagon shop is 
running on the east side, and another is being 
built on the west side 

'"Brewery — Last and most necessary of all, is 
the big brewery nearly completed, just south of 
the village. 

"business on the river. 

. "The amount of freight taken up Wolf river, 
the past year, exceeds three thousand five hundred 
tons. The amount of logs scaled in the lake boom 
just above, and tugged down by Winneconne the 
past season, foots up to 175,000,000. Tugs, boats, 
flats, and fleets of logs and lumber are passing up 
and down at all hours of the day. Thousands of 
woods-men and raftsmen go up to their camps in 
the fall, returning in tbe spring on the drives and 



214 HISTORY OF THE 

boats. From three to four hundred men are em- 
ployed at the boom till late in September. At 
present the business of Wolf river connects mostly 
with its lumber trade. But its greater wealth and 
business is to be developed hereafter, when a 
hundred thousand settlers are driving up their fat 
herds and growing thirty bushel of winter wheat 
to the acre." 




CITY OF RIPON. 215 



CHAPTER XI. 

MY OPINION OF MYSELF. 

Job says, "Oh, that mine adversary had written 
a book," and what he wanted of that I never 
could quite understand ; but I have written a book 
for my friends ; and my adversaries, if I have any, 
may consider the prayer of Job answered for 
them. In shaping my course through life my 
object has been to please. I have been a man of 
mild disposition, generally had control of my 
temper, social, of cheerful humor, capable of 
attachment, little susceptible of enmity, and of 
some moderation in most of my passions; even my 
love of praise never soured my temper notwith- 
standing my frequent disappointments. My com- 
pany was not unacceptable to the young and care- 
less, as well as to the grave and serious, and as I 
took a particular pleasure in the company of 
modest women, I had no reason to be displeased 
with the reception I met with from them. In a 
word, although most men complain of calumny, 



216 HISTORY OF THE 

I never was attacked by her baneful tooth. My 
friends never had occasion to vindicate any one 
circumstance of my character and conduct, not but 
some would have been glad to invent and propa- 
gate any story to my disadvantage, but they could 
never find any which they thought would wear 
the face of probability. I can not say there is no 
vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, 
but I hope it is not a misplaced one, and this is 
matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascer- 
tained. 

In writing up this history of my life and times, 
the question arises of what service have 1 been to 
my age and generation? It is true I have lived 
longer than the average of mankind, but in this 
long life have I learned anything that I can recom- 
mend to the next generation? If not, then my 
life has been a blank, and of no account. But 
the desire of man is to live long and be happy 
through life. Now what I have learned is that it is 
best for man's health to live temperate, I have 
so lived in regard to meats and drinks ; never 
drank to excess in my life, my food has been coarse 
and hearty. I have ate foui meals a day when I 
could get them; that is three regular meals through 
the day and a lunch on going to bed. And this 



CITY OF RIPON, 217 

everybody has told me, is unhealthy, but I was 
never sick a day in my life, that is, so sick that I 
could not leave the house. I have always been 
active in my vocations through life, an dso, with 
a good constitution I have managed to live three- 
quarters of a century. And now whether it is 
best to o;et married or not. I think it is the 
only true way for man to live ; their is no relation- 
ship like it, nothing that binds man so strongly to 
earth as that. I have had fifty years experience 
in married life, and think that I can safely recom- 
mend it. 

Yes, young man, look up a good wife as soon as 
you can support one, but upon that selection 
depends your future happiness or misery. I hope 
your good sense will lead you to select a girl that 
does not run much to dress and jeweliy, but one 
whose mother has taught her the duties of a good 
housewife. And you, girls, avoid the fop and vain 
fool, even though he should be a good dancer ; no, 
do not marry a man unless he has shown by his 
life that he is capable of taking care of you, and 
when you have got him treat him to smiles and he 
will not return it in frowns, unless you have got a 
brute and not a man. Now let me go a little fur- 
ther with my advice to the young men. Be 
28 



218 HISTORY OF THE 

industrious in everything you undertake — you 
must be so in order to succeed ; be prudent and get a 
start; get your snow-ball rolling and keep it in 
motion and you will soon see how it will accumu- 
late as you roll it Let your religion be such as 
will teach you to do unto others as you would 
have them do unto you in like circumstances In 
politics be a good loyal citizen to the powers that 
be, and take sides with the party based upon the 
principle of an honest administration of a republi- 
can form of government. At the date of this 
writing we have fallen upon wicked times. Not 
only have the officers of the Government mani- 
fested great wickedness, but by the tone of the 
people's conversation they are prone to wink at 
the delinquencies, and are only waiting to take 
the place of those who are now stealing from the 
public crib, but I still hope we may get back to 
the times of a Jefferson and Jackson, which I pray 
God may soon come. 

I am one whom time has not much withered, 
but how long I shall have this to say of myself I 
know not. The number of years which I have 
lived would indicate that I was in my dotage, but 
I am not, and it is enough for me that I feel the 
inspiration of youth as I write. I have set a 



CITY OP RIPON. 219 

critical watch over myself, and one of my tests 
for dotage was that company would avoid me, and 
that the old man would tell his stories over and 
over again, until they would become irksome to 
the listener; but as I find that my company is 
rather courted than shunned, I have come to the 
conclusion that I have not grown old. On one 
occasion I told my wife that one of my dreads of 
old age was that T should tell the same story over 
and over to the same person, and said, " I suppose 
you get weary of my old stories." "No," she 
replied, "you have a way of telling them different 
at different times." I rather think she had the 
joke on me,, but the reply pleased me at the time. 
1 had also observed that old men were prone to 
thrust their advice upon' their acquaintances, and 
this I have tried to avoid. Why should we not 
tell the coming generations what we have learned? 
What use would our lives and experience be if we 
did not give it? But all do not give it in book- 
form, as I pi'opose to do. Young people are wont 
to ask the opinion of their elders upon subjects 
on which they are equally at fault; for instance, 
if they have a ride or something else in view for 
the next day, they will come to ascertain what the 
weather will be; in all such cases I first find out 



2"20 HISTORY OF THE 

what weather they desire, and then answer to 
please them, for I do not know what changes 
might occur, and even if I did tell them differently 
from what they wished they would say that I did 
not know anything about it. 

In a former chapter I have given the early 
history of Winneconne and its prospects, I will 
now describe it after five years improvement. It 
has not grown as rapidly as it would if emigration 
had not set towards Kansas and Nebraska. But 
that will soon have had its run, as the emigrant 
will find that those extensive prairies are deficient 
in timber and lumber for building, and he must 
have both to make himself a home, even if the 
soil is ever so rich and productive. Five years 
ago we had, at Winneconne, an old float bridge 
across the Wolf river, which is at this place six 
hundred feet wide ; we now have a beautiful bridge, 
ten feet above the river, with two carriage tracks 
and fine walks on both sides From these walks 
you get a beautiful view up and down the liver. 
Looking up the river you get a fine view of the 
lake, which is constantly dotted over with steamers, 
tugs and vessels, in fact, a more interesting view 
cannot be found, as the banks of the river and 
lake come down with a gentle slope, and the 



CITY OF RIPON. 221 

country around about is moat delightful. The 
town contains about two thousand inhabitants. 
Mills and factories are springing up daily, but they 
must be driven by steam as we are on navigable 
waters, hence no water power. But the steam 
power can be made at less expense here than at any 
other point I know of, as the refuse lumber (both 
pine and oak) from the mills can be had for the haul- 
ing. The fine forest on one side of the lake makes 
fuel lower than at other point in the State. Their 
comes to this point, each year, over two hundred 
million feet of lumber, a very large amount of 
which is worked up here, hence it is the cheapest 
place to live in America. We are not living in a 
wilderness; we have our railroad trains arriving 
and departing, also our steamboats going and 
coming daily, freighted with passengers and goods 
for the river is navigable one hundred miles north 
of this place. We have our hotels — the "Lake- 
View House," " Mapes House," and others. Aside 
from its commercial advantages it is a point where 
pleasure seekers can find all they could ask for in 
the line of hunting, fishing or sailing. We have 
a lake on each side of the town, and the broad 
river, six hundred feet wide, running directly 
through it. And now, dear reader, what do you 



222 HISTOEY OF THE 

think of Winneconnp, the last town I propose to 
build? 

I will now comment on Ripon as she appeared 
to me in 1873. I hope she has not got her growth. 
She has all of her beautiful location left; that can 
not be taken from her. Let the future visitor 
take a stand on her western hill-side and look over 
her, for a more beautiful picture cannot be found. 
It was from this point that our party first caught 
a glimpse of the spot, and broke out in admira- 
tion of its loveliness. We had stayed with the 
hospitable family of Satterlee Clark during the 
previous night and had come over to this spot on 
a bright morning of 1844 ; then the natural 
beauties of those undulating hills and valleys had 
not been marred. Much has been done to improve 
the spot, but in its natural state it had an attract- 
iveness which I have never found elsewhere; its 
beautiful Silver Creek had not then been chained 
to do menial service for man, as my friend Tag- 
gart has so finely said in his presentation speech 
to me which appears elsewhere in this work. No, 
I hope that she may continue to prosper, and that 
this little book will 'fall into the hands of many 
good men who will see the beauties of the place 
as I have always seen them. To-day I love to 



CITY OF RIPON. 223 

take the same position on that western hill-side, 
and sit and gaze upon the scene for hours; it never 
tires rue. Railroads now meander through the 
vallies and the cars are laden with the fruits of 
the richest soil in the world, for one of the attrac- 
tions of the place is that man can get his living 
from the soil with as little toil as upon any spot 
on this globe, and he who will labor is sure of his 
pay, and without labor lie deserves nothing. This 
is all I shall say of the location, but will now 
take the visitor to the office or parlor of Wood's 
Hotel, and look out upon the broad street in front, 
or public square as it is sometimes called. Ex- 
tending to the south for nearly a mile is a well- 
built city with cream colored brick fronts two and 
three stories high, beautifully designed and with 
all modern improvements. On a street leading to 
the right, going south, stauds the Mapes House on 
one corner and the Opera Hall on the other, both 
ornaments to the place. Advancing on this street, 
which rises about fifty feet in as many rods, you 
come to the apex or College Park, and a most 
beautiful spot it is, with its shrubbery and trees, 
and its winding gravel walks running in front of 
the church and three college buildings — the latter 
are built of cream-colored limestone and are three 



224 . HISTORY OF THE 

stories in height — and thence to the cemetery, 
which is situated on a more subdued height directly 
west of the college grounds ; the whole forming a 
scene seldom equaled. If an English gardner had 
laid out those grounds he could not have made 
them more beautiful than nature has formed them. 
We had merely to erect the buildings in order to 
make the building complete, and from this spot 
you have a view of the whole town lying below 
you, and although in the midst of the business 
portion, it is still completely retired. Such is 
Ripon. Wayside and other avenues commence 
south from College Park and run through the 
most beautiful natural groves, in which are located 
the fine residences of Richard Catlin the banker, 
Jedediah Bowen, Samuel Sumner, and many other 
prominent men who have stood by Ripon from its 
infancy, and who when Ripon was but a small 
pistol like Paddy's, hoped they might live to see 
her a great gun. It is only necessary for her citi- 
zens to act in conceit and stand shoulder to 
shoulder in every enterprise, for it has already 
been demonstrated what a united effort will 
accomplish. The present position of Ripon shows 
it; she is one of the most beautiful cities in the 
West, and yet it is but twenty- three years since 




A *z 



*9 *&. <S 




CrTY OF RIPON. 225 

the first house was built, the American, and 
this stands amongst you to-day; it is now situated 
in the rear of Wood's Hotel, having been moved 
back in order to make room for that beautiful 
structure which now occupies its site, and which 
would be an ornament to any town. 

This hotel when completed had an opening 
festival, and I will insert the proceedings as pub- 
lished in a Ripon paper at the time of the opening : 

"This anxiously looked for event has passed, and 
is now one of the historical events of our city. 
The weather was just what was needed; the hall 
in excellent condition, the house ditto, and in fact 
everything was just as it should have been on this 
important occasion. The cuisine proved equal to 
the occasion, and the excellent manner in which 
the many tables were attended to, was the subject 
of many flattering remarks by the guests. About 
two hundred and fifty tickets were sold, fiom which 
$1,200 were realized. We can in no better manner 
show how the affair was appreciated, than by 
publishing the notices of the several newspaper 
men who were present, and this we do below. 
Capt. Mapes was on hand and made a few remarks, 
which we give beneath to our readers : 

"Ladies and Gentlemen : — About twenty-three 
29 



226 HISTORY OF THE 

years ago we had a hotel opening on this very 
spot, and we had the elite of the whole country in 
attendance, and to-night we have the aristocracy 
of the same country; and is there one among us 
who is not proud to be here to do honor to the 
host and hostess of this house. They have moved 
back what we thought was a palace on the border 
of this beautiful prairie, to give place to this 
palace of our city Wood's Hotel. How rapid is 
the march of improvement. The host of this 
house was but a boy by the side of his widowed 
mother when the opening of the first hotel 
occurred. He, I hope, may not see this moved 
back to make room for a better, this is quite good 
enough for this generation, and beautiful it is, and 
I am proud to see manifested that generous good 
feeling which to-night fills this house. And now 
keep on with this spirit, and all hands help to 
make business with which to keep all your busi- 
ness places busy. Ripon has not slumbered yet. 
Keep her awake, if some of us do fall asleep. 
There is one improvement you are making; I refer 
to your gas-works. They used to speak of the 
growth of Ripon, and said it was owing to Captain 
Mapes' gas, but as you are now gettiDg the real 
gas, you will have a more solid growth. 



CITY OF REPON. 227 

"But now I propose not to use any more of your 
time, but let all go on and see how many each can 
make happy by word or look, and make it a day 
long, long to be remembered. But I want to tell 
you Bipon people that you are talked about. 
And what do they say about you? Why, they 
say you are proud. Yes, and well may you be 
proud — of the best schools in the West, the best 
built town of its size, the most beautiful women 
in the West, that is, the young ladies who come 
here to school, and live in the surroundings of 
Bipon. I do not mean Bipon ladies, they are here 
to show for themselves; you, young men, can 
speak to them, alone, of that, and it will not 
offend — I have tried it. And now long may the 
banner wave over Wood's Hotel." 

The Saturday Beporter contained the following 
item : 

"The opening of Wood's new hotel at Bipon 
on Thursday evening, was attended by a very 
large concourse of people, and if the standing 
and intelligence of the people is an index, the 
popularity of the hotel will be second to none in 
the State. If we had space we would give the 
affair the extended notice it deserves this week." 

Bipon is a small town to write a book about, 



228 HISTORY OF THE 

but small as it is it has beauties which can 
nowhere else be found. 

Oakwood, a watering-place, is a Ripon produc- 
tion, having been conceived and brought into 
existence by Ripon men, and is a success. It is a 
beautiful villa situated on the banks of Green 
Lake, and is accessible by the Northern Division 
of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, also by 
the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railways, direct 
route from Chicago and Milwaukee. The location 
of this much sought summer resort and delightful 
watering place is only one mile from Green Lake 
Station and depot, where omnibusses and carriages 
await the arrival of the trains. The Oakwood 
House is open for guests the first of May in each 
year. Here are found all the creature comforts 
incident to watering-places, and as long as the 
present proprietor and family shall live to preside 
as landlord and lady, the visitors will be well 
cared for; they will be welcomed with a smile by 
the host, David Greenway, and his sons, and will 
be loth to bid them adieu. The natural scenery 
around Oakwood is unrivalled in variety and 
beauty. Groves of primeval grandeur, far stretch- 
ing prairies, and an extensive lake view greet the 
eye from any point. It is the healthiest location 



CITY OF R1PON. 229 

in the United States, being so pronounced by the 
hundreds of people who visit us each summer 
season. No place in the world equals Green Lake 
for its fine black bass and splendid duck shooting, 
while pheasants, partridges, quail, woodcock, snipe, 
prairie grouse, squirrels, rabbits, etc., are found 
upon its borders. 




30 HISTOKY OF THE 



CHAPTER XII. 

FREEMASONRY. 

In writing up this history I have twice alluded 
to Freemasonry, and will now relate what I know 
of it, without fear of being Morganized. I have 
been a Mason for over fifty years, and should 
consider myself competent to judge of its worth 
as an institution to do good to the world, or work 
it evil, and this much I can say, I do not regret 
that I have been one, although I have never been 
forward in showing the public, by the display of 
emblematic jewelry, that I was a member of the 
fraternity. I have found that where I have 
accidentally met a worthy brother among stran- 
gers it has helped to make the acquaintance very 
pleasant. I once thought that I had discovered 
where Masonry had done a great good in forming 
the character of a young man. I was at Madison 
at the opening of the State Legislature, and, as 
usual, a Speaker had to be elected, and the choice 
fell on H. L. P., of Milwaukee. He was at that 



CITY OF RIPON. 231 

time a very young man, but he walked up to the 
chair, called the house to order and* proceeded to 
business with as much ease and grace as though he 
had held the position for years. On leaving the 
house, I said to my old friend, the late G. H. 
Walker, of Milwaukee: 

"I am proud of the young man whom you have 
made your Speaker. Did you perceive with what 
ease he went through the opening?" 

"Yes;" he answered, "and do you know how he 
came by that familiarity of presiding?" 

"No, I do not," I replied. 

" Well," he said, " he got that from being the 
Grand Master of Masons of the State." 

"If that is the result of Masonry," I replied, 
"I will go home and recommend my two sons 
to become Masons !" 

As that is as far as the order allows the recom- 
mendation or solicitation of a member to a person 
outside, I did so. In after years I chanced to be 
a room-mate of H. L. P., and I related my conver- 
sation with Mr. Walker, but he said : 

"You give too much credit to Masonry. I did 
not get all this fitness from Masonry, I got it while 
1 was a student-at-law in Troy, New York. I 
used to go down to Albany, six miles, daily when 



232 HISTORY OF THE 

the Legislature was in session, and there listen to 
the proceedings and debates, and when the Legis- 
lature broke up I could have gone through with 
presiding as well as now." 

But I think his presiding in the Lodge helped 
him to ease and experience, for all Masons know 
that "order is Heaven's first law," and order we 
are taught in the Lodge. I have also learned that 
a very mean man taken into the fraternity, makes 
a very mean Mason ; members of churches make 
the same complaint in regard to their members. 
Upon the whole I think the institution has done 
a great deal of good, and I have never yet seen 
where it has worked evil to society, unless it does 
so in taking us away from our wives for short 
seasons, as they are not allowed to sit in Lodge 
except on festive occasions, but the good old 
Scotch poet, who was a brother, compensates for 
that in one of his songs: 

"A Freemason's arms is a bonny, bonny place, 
Where you can safely lay 
On a cold winter's night and never think it long till day." 



CITY OF RIPON. 283 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN 

Horace Greeley said, "Young man go West," 
I say young man stay where you are if you have 
anything to do. You see by this history of my 
life, that I have been following Horace Greeley's 
advice too much for my own good. Had I remained 
in either place where I have lived I would have been 
better off than 1 am now. A man should so live 
that his acts in life will go to his credit; if he has 
not, then he had better stay and live down slander 
by acts that shall go to his advantage. For if he 
has had aught said against him, and he removes 
from there, the story will follow him, and like the 
rolling snow-ball, it will increase with every turn 
of the ball. The time spent in removals is so 
much time lost. So, young man, if you have a 
situation, that you can, by frugality and labor, lay 
by something, be it ever so little, you had better 
30 



234 HISTORY OF THE 

be contented and remain there. Then as Burns 
says to the young man: 

" Then gather wealth by every means that honor doth approve of; 
Not to hide it in a hedge, nor for a train attendant, 
But for the glorious privilege of being independent." 

In many places in these passes, I find some of 
my advice on this subject, but it is nevertheless 
true, if I do repeat it. It is my conviction from 
a long life's experience, and I wish to impress it 
upon the minds of the youths of our land. Reader, 
excuse repetition, it is what I was afraid I should 
run into. 

I hope this work will not appear to the reader 
as did the book which an old batchelor was read- 
ing at his boarding house. When the ladies would 
go into the general parlor and find him reading he 
had the politeness to turn down a leaf in the work 
he was reading, and join in conversation. One of 
the ladies was mischievous enough to steal away 
the book and turn up the leaf and turn one down 
farther back, and in this way compelled our 
batchelor friend to read over his work again. One 
day the ladies took occasion to ask him how he 
liked the book, and his reply was that it was very 
good, but most too much sameness. 

I have just taken up a newspaper from which 



CITY OF BEPON. 235 

I have clipped the following extract to excuse 
me for the vanity of writing at this advanced age 
of seventy -five years. Here is a man whom 
I have frequently met and always admired, Wil- 
liam Cullen Bryant, and who is now nearly eighty 
yeai s old. But it cannot be said of me as of him, 
that I was early in life engaged in writing for the 
Press, for I never was. As you see by the pre- 
ceding pages I have been engaged in commercial 
pursuits, but used occasionally to write short 
articles for my sons, both of whom were editors 
in times gone by. I never have been ambitious to 
be an author, and this last effort is for pastime, 
but such as it you may have it, and should it do 
good to the coming reader I shall be amply 
repaid. 

v "Mr. Bryant is now seventy-nine years old, and 
no other period of t his life has been more prolific 
in compositions of the highest order than the 
eighth decade of time through which he is now 
passing. But the most extraordinary fact about 
this life is not only that its productiveness has 
extended in reality into extreme old age, but that 
it began in extreme youth. We have examples 
in literature of men like Dryden, who bore his 
best fruit in his last years; but of him it must be 



236 HISTORY OF THE 

said that in his first years he bore no fruit at all. 
Then, again, literature is full of cases of men of 
precocious genius, who exhibited an astonishing 
intellectual splendor at an early age, but whose 
power seemed to burn out in the process, and to 
conduct their possessors to a speedy death or to a 
later life of impotence. But Bryant, who excites 
the admiration of this generation by the marvel of 
his genius burning undimmed in old age, excited 
the admiration of our grandfathers by the marvel 
of his genius already enkindled and radiant in his 
early youth. As far back as 1804, when he was 
but ten years old, he published translations from 
the Latin poets. In 1807 he wrote an effective 
political satire called 'The Embargo,' which ran 
through two editions in a few months. The per- 
fect poem of 'Tnanatopsis,' which may itself defy 
the power which it celebrates, was written when 
its author was only eighteen. A long, literary life 
like this, that sheds a remarkable light at both 
extremes — that is as glorious for the long preser- 
vation of its powers as it is for the precocity with 
which they were first manifested — has an interest 
for us scarcely to be surpassed in the history of 
letters. It is a noble privilege to add that the lit- 
erary activity of Mr. Bryant, thus astonishing for 



CITY OF BIPON. 237 

beginning so earnestly and continuing so late, 
forms but one side of a life which has been strenu- 
ous in professional labors, faithful and sweet in 
the privacies of home and friendship, alert in the 
attention to all the duties of a citizen, and which 
has from the first lent itself only to what is pure, 
dignified and humane in society." 

Oh ! would some power the giftie gee us, 

To see oursel's as ithers see us, 

It wad frae mony a blunder free us. — Burns. 

And now, after having passed through a long 
life, and been an observer of men, manners and 
customs, the world, as it now passes, is to me 
but as a grand play, and I as a looker on ; and 
as the play is almost at an end, I have a right to 
comment on the actors and the audience as they 
go out before me. I hope to see the play go on 
for so some time; so in my comments on others, I 
must not forget the part I have and am at the 
present time playing. But from affectation, good 
Lord deliver me. You, young man, who think 
you must smoke a cigar to make a man of yourself, 
try and hold your cigar gracefully, especially the 
first one, for remember that the eye of the public 
is on you, and should you fail to carry it with ease 
and grace, you will be laughed at and ridiculed, 
for you are more noticed than you would really 



238 HISTORY OF THE 

suppose. Remember that the character of every 
one, old or young, is commented on, more or less, 
on every street corner. Now bear in mind that 
you will be talked about, and let your conduct be 
such, that whatever may be said of you, it may be 
in your praise. 

I was once traveling with a friend, and stopped 
for the night at a hotel, and as our bill was not 
exactly satisfactory when we came to leave, T said 
to the landlord, "I can give yon a receipt by 
which you can keep a good hotel and never fail." 

"Well," he says, "that I should like." 

Then I said to him, "Do you know what this 
man and myself will talk about when we first drive 
away from your house." 

"No, I do not." 

" Well, the first subject that we will discuss will 
be you, your house, your fare, and the price paid. 
Always keep that in mind, and so behave to your 
customer that he will have nothing to find fault 
with, for there is nothing surer than that he will 
talk you all over. But take care that you do not 
overdo the matter and be too much of a landlord. 



CITY OF RIPON. 239 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

Iii bringing this book to a close, and reviewing 
my long life, it appears a mystery why we should 
have been brought into this world. It is a curi- 
osity to me; to me it has been an enigma. We 
have thought we possessed friends and have held 
them in high esteem, but when we came to test 
them by dollars and cents we have found how 
wofully we had been disappointed. 

I met an old acquaintance, to-day, who seemed 
pleased to see me, and 'the following conversation 
ensued : 

" Why, Captain, how pleased I am to see you ; 
how young you look; it does me good to meet 
you. You have been the foremost man in all our 
town in building colleges, churches, and every 
public institution, and in getting railroads to the 
place ; without you we should have no town here. 
I passed the place that you are now building at 



240 HISTORY OF THE 

Winneconne, and thought I saw your handiwork 
there. It is a beautiful place, and, if you live, 
you will make it a town.'' 

" Yes, I hope to. But why did you not call and 
see me? I should be pleased to have entertained 
you at my house." 

" Well, I should if I had the time, for I know 1 
should have been welcome." 

" Elder, I have been writing up the history of 
Bipon, and other towns that I have helped build, 
together with my own life ; I am getting it into a 
book of about three hundred pages, at a cost of 
two dollars a copy, and should like to have you 
subscribe for it; if you do so, your name will 
appear in the work as one of my friends and 
patrons to the book." 

"Ahem ! W-el-l I don't know ; I have a great 
many ways for money tmVfall; I have had to pay 
out much to our church; I don't see howl can " 

"I am sorry, not so much for the two dollars, 
but I had reckoned on your name as truly my 
friend." 

"Well, I will see you again!" 

Perhaps he will, if so I shall be pleased to meet 
him. This is nothing new; I have seen it all 
through life, but it does not set me back much. 



CITY OF RIPON. 241 

The next man I met, after hearing my story and 
being solicited for a subscription, said : 

"Yes, Captain, set me down for two copies; I 
will send one to my friends East, and show them 
how we build towns, and what a lovely country 
we have here about Ripon." 

In the preceding pages I have written of my 
religious belief. I have a little boy, five years of 
age, running thi'ough the room, and his inquisitive 
mind propounded to me a question that I can not 
answer. His mother tells him of a God, whom 
he seems so anxious to learn more of, and he 
supposes he can get all the knowledge that is 
necessary from his parents ; but, alas, how little do 
we know. He said, " Pa, how large is God ?" 
Yes, that is the question, "How large is God?" 
How does He govern this world? How does he 
produce those beautiful flowers which blossom in 
the garden, with all their variegated colors on one 
stem ? Here, while I write, is the simple but 
beautiful morning-glory, running and twining up 
the window-casing, with three or four distinct 
colors on the same vine, in the same sunshine or 
shade. It would seem as if there was some great 
Designer, whose object was to please man. Well 
may we ask, with the little boy, "How large is 
31 



242 HISTORY OF THE CITY OF RIPON. 

God?" I cannot answer, except that he is in and 
through everything, that the world is God, and 
God is the world, and, oh, how beautiful it is. 
Yes, roll on as you will for generations to come, 
when he whose thoughts have been put in print 
and laid on the shelves, to be dusted off, or 
perhaps taken down and read by some one to see 
if those who have gone before them knew any 
more than they can learn through their senses. 





RIPON COLLEGE. 



ITS HISTORY 

The first efforts to establish an institution of 
learning in Ripon, had their origin in the public 
and educational interest of the first settlers of the 
town. In the year 1851, the citizens made a move- 
ment to found a literary institution of a hisrh 
order. A corporation was formed under a charter, 
obtained for the purpose. In the summer of that 
year the walls of what is now the East College 
building were erected, and late in the autumn the 
roof was put on. The money was wholly furnished 



244 HISTORY OF THE 

by the people of Ripon, and vicinity, and, consid- 
ering their very limited resources, their contribu- 
tions were very liberal. Some who had no money 
gave materials or their own labor. 

Having exhausted their scanty means on the 
unfinished building, and seeing the need of enlist- 
ing some religious denomination in the enterprise, 
the Trustees, the next year, sent a proposition to 
the "Winnebago District Convention of Presby- 
terian and Congregational Ministers and Churches," 
offering to transfer the whole property to the 
Convention for the sum of $400 — the amount of 
their debts — on condition that the building should 
be so far finished as to admit of the opening of a 
High School, and that such school be actually 
begun in it early in 1853. 

The churches of this region, being then very 
small and poor, the Convention did not deem it 
practicable to raise even the very small sum of 
money required. But one of its members, Rev. 
J. W. Walcott, then minister of the church at 
Menasha, personally accepted the condition 
in behalf of the Convention; the Convention 
being pledged to take the institution under its 
care with a new organization, so soon as 
the money necessary for the purpose could be 



CITY OF RIPON. 245 

raised. Mr. Walcott accordingly secured the 
property by deed from the Trustees. He also 
enlarged the site, by the purchase of nine 
acres of adjacent land. The building was so far 
finished that winter, that, according to the agree- 
ment, a school was opened in it in the Spring 
of 1853, and was continued from that time with a 
good degree of success. 

In February 1855, in accordance with a resolu- 
tion of the convention, a new charter was obtained 
from the Legislature, incorporating the " Board of 
Trustees of Brockway College," as it was then 
entitled, and naming, as the first trustees, the 
persons who had been designated by the conven- 
tion for that purpose. The Board was organized 
under the new charter, in March 1855. The College 
grounds and building were conveyed to the Board 
by warranty deed, February 21st, 1857. That 
year, a liberal subscription having been obtained 
for the purpose, the Second College Building, now 
the Middle^College, was erected. 

At this time the Board was heavily in debt, and 
the disastrous financial crisis of 1857, struck the 
young institution a sudden and severe blow. The 
promising subscription almost collapsed. For 
about five years the institution struggled almost 



246 HISTORY OF THE 

hopelessly with its financial difficulties. Its em- 
barrassments were so great that some of its warm- 
est friends were discouraged. For about a year, 
at the opening of the rebellion, the Trustees were 
compelled to suspend the school. Many of the 
students enlisted in the army, the College grounds 
were leased to the Government for a camp, and 
occupied by the First Regiment of Wisconsin 
Cavalry. 

But in 1862, the convention and steadfast friends 
of the College rallied. A subscription to pay its 
debts was so far successful, that in September of 
that year the Trustees reopened the school, under 
the charge of Professor Edward H. Merrell, (now 
Professor of Greek) assisted by efficient lady 
teachers. Under them, the school grew so rapidly, 
and its prospects seemed so favorable, that in April 
1863, the Trustees began the organization of a 
permanent Faculty for regular college instruction. 
Rev. Wm. E. Merrimen, then pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church at Green Bay, was elected Presi- 
dent, and E. H. Merrell, Professor of Languages. 
At the annual meeting of the Board in July, the 
President entered upon his duties, and the policy 
of the College was define J. At the opening of 
the term, in September 1863, the first regular 



CITY OF RIPON. 247 

college class was formed. Before this time the 
institution had only been a high school ; this is the 
date of its organization and beginuing as a regular 
college, while its preparatory department has been 
still continued. The first collegiate year, its debts 
were wholly paid, the east building was completed 
and the library begun. Some amendments to the 
charter were also obtained, changing its name to 
"Ripon College," and granting additional privi- 
leges. 

Since its permanent organization for regular 
collegiate work, in 1863, the college has made 
constant progress, in the number of its teachers, 
in funds and facilities for instructions, and in 
reputation and influence. In I860 it had outgrown 
its accommodations; and in 1867 the West College 
building, larger and better than either of the 
others, was erected. The College is now firmly 
established, with a full faculty, and with means 
sufficient, so that it may afford ample instruction 
in all departments of a liberal education. 

THE CHARTER, POWERS AND CONTROL OF THE COLLEGE. 

The charter incorporates, "The Board of Trus- 
tees of Ripon College," fifteen in number, including 
the President of the College, who is ex-officio a 



248 HISTORY OF THE 

Trustee. The others hold office three years, one- 
third going out of office every year; but they are 
re-elegible. The Board fills its own vacancies. It 
has power to maintain an institution of learning 
of the highest order, with all the powers necessary 
to its operation and control. It may establish any 
deparment of learning, confer the usual degrees, 
may receive donations for special educational pur- 
poses, and apply them according to the designs of 
the donors. It may hold property, both real and 
personal, to any amount, provided the annual 
income from it shall not exceed $20,000. 

The title to the College grounds is perfect and 
obsolute, and the property is wholly encumbered- 
The entire control and government of the College 
is vested in in the Board of Trustees, according to 
the charter. It has been built up mainly by the 
Congregationalists. The majority of the Trustees 
are members of Congregational churches, and the 
Board has the confidence of that denomination. 
It is a Christian College, under the patronage of 
Congregationalists. But it is not designed to be 
sectarian; no sectarian instruction is given; it is 
not under any sectarian control ; it has no organic 
connection with any church or ecclesiastical body. 
Many of its strong friends and liberal benefactors 



ClTt OF RIPON. 249 

are in other denominations. Its privileges are 
open to all, on the same terms ; and there is hardly 
a denomination in the land that is not represented 
among its students. 

DESIGN AND POLICY OF THE COLLEGE. 

The two sexes are here educated together. 
Students of each sex may take the same courses 
of study, and they enjoy the same privileges. 
This is uo experiment here ; experience has satis- 
fied us that this plan is every way the best. It 
does, indeed, require the best conditions, but 
these being granted, it produces the best results. 

Health, temperance, sterling morality, christian** 
character and christian usefulness, are made promi- 
nent objects of instruction as conducted here. A 
christian philosophy will be taught, and the aim 
will be to have all instruction accordant with 
christian principles, and pervaded with the christ- 
ian spirit. 

The Academic Department will be continued 
in connection with the Collegiate. The institution 
will be open to all students of a suitable age, 
when they have concluded their studies in the 
Public Schools ; and if they cannot take a full 
course, they may pursue any studies for which 
they are qualified. The College is thus prepared 
32 



250 HISTORY OF THE 

to meet the wants of all classes of students, and 
that too, without destroying the regular order of 
instruction. 

There are two courses of instruction in the 
College, the Classical and Scientific ; both of four 
years, and differing chiefly in the relative attention 
given to Classical and Scientific studies. The 
completion of either entitles the student to the 
corresponding literary degree. We seek to main- 
tain the standard of a liberal education, both in 
thoroughness and extent ; but we seek also to 
adapt instruction to the wants of the times. The 
courses of study are equivalent to those of the 
colleges of the east 

LOCATION, GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS. 

The beauty and healthfulness of Ripon and the 
character of the people, are favorable for a 
college. The College Grounds include twelve 
acres. They are very convenient and pleasant, 
being high enough to overlook the town. There 
are three College Buildings, all of stone. The 
East Building is fifty feet square and three stories 
high. It contains recitation rooms, reading room, 
chemical department and cabinet, besides private 
rooms for students. The Middle Building is 100 
feet by 44, three stories high, besides the attic 



CITY OF RIPON. 2c 1 

and basement. This is the Ladies 1 Building ; it 
contains the boarding hall, reception rooms, music 
rooms and private rooms of the lady teachers and 
students. The West Building is 80 feet by 50, 
and four .stories high. It contains the chapel, 
library, lecture rooms and private rooms for male 
teachers and students. Each of the buildings 
also contains the hall of one of the literary 
societies. The buildings afford room for the in- 
struction of 300 students, of whom about 200 
may reside in the buildings. 

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND POLICY. 

The whole amount of the College property is 
estimated at about $120,000. There are no in- 
incumbrances of any kind on it. The amount of 
floating debt is very small. Upwards of $25,000 
of its permanent fund has been given by friends 
of education at the east. 

Since the orgauization of the institution as a 
College in 1863, it has been operated wholly on its 
Earnings, its teachers receiving only what was ob- 
tained from tuition, until the endowment fund was 
begun. This now affords about half its support. 
Every dollar contributed to the College since 
1863, has been employed in building it up, with- 
out any diminution for current expenses, or for 



252 HISTORY OF THE 

management, or for raising money. It is proposed 
to continue this rigidly economical policy — to 
spend nothing given to the College in operating 
it, but co use every donation in increasing its per- 
manent means of instruction. It is designed to 
keep the College within the reach of the poor. 
The expenses of the student are very low, tuition 
being but $8.00 a term and board but $2.50 a 
week. 

THE WORK WHICH HAS BEEN DONE. 

The foundations of a Christian College have 
been established. It has secured an eligible home 
It has acquired a considerable part of the neces- 
sary property. It has permanently arranged its 
educational work, and already accomplished a 
very important and valuable service. Seven classes 
have graduated. A considerable number having 
received their entire training here, have gone to 
older colleges to complete their course. A large 
number who could not pursue a full course, have 
had here an incomplete, but very important, trail- 
ing. By the work of education already done, the 
College has secured the confidence of the people 
so far as it is known. 

The College has become dear to the churches. 
It is rooted in thousands of Christian hearts, and 



CITY OF RIPON. 253 

draws their prayers and gifts. It has developed 
much interest in higher education. It has acquired 
such a measure of moral and religious power, as 
to be the efficient all}' of the churches. The work 
thus done opens the 

GREATER WORK TO BE DONE. 

With ample means for their instruction and 
assistance the present number of students might 
be greatly increased. The demands for the College 
must greatly increase in the future. Wisconsin 
is nearly as large as the whole of New England, 
and if peopled as densely it would have a popu- 
lation of over four millions. It will sustain a 
population far greater. While then we seek to 
make the College as useful as possible, in doing 
the work now required of it, we should so plan 
that it may grow to be adequate to the greater 
work to be done hereafter. 

PRESENT BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

Rev. William E. Merriman, Ex Officio; Jehdeiah 
Bowen, Esq., Ripon; Charles F. Hammond, Esq., 
Ripon; Hon. E. D. Holtou, Milwaukee; Richard 
Catlin, Esq., Ripon, Rev. E/ P. Goodwin, D. D., 
Chicago. 

Term expires with the Collegiate year in June, 
1873. 



254 HISTOKY OF THE 

Rev. J. J. Miter, D. D., Beaver Dam; William 
Starr, Esq., Ripon ; Rev. Henry A. Miner, Colum- 
bus; Edwin M. Danforth, Esq., Oshkosh; Rev. F. 
B. Doe, Ripon. 

Term expires with the Collegiate year, in July, 
1874. 

Rev. Charles W. Camp, Waukesha; Rev. Arthur 
Little, Fond du Lac; Storrs Hall, M. D , Rosen- 
dale; Thomas H. Little, Esq., Janesville, 

Term expires with the Collegiate year, in June ; 
1875. 

OFFICERS OF THE BOARD AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Rev. William E. Merriman, President; Rev. J. 
J. Miter, D. D., Vice President; Storrs Hall, M. 
D., Secretary; Jehdeiah Bowen, Esq., Treasurer. 

FACULTY. 

Rev. William E. Merriman, A. M., President, 
and Professor of Mental and Moral Science; Rev. 
Edward H. Merrell, A. M., Professor of the Greek 
Language and Literature; Rev. John P. Haire, A. 
M., Professor of the Latin Language and Litera- 
ture ; Joseph M. Geery, A. M , Professor of Rhetoric 
and English Literature; John C. Fillmore, A. M., 
Instructor in German; Lyman B. Sperry, M. D., 
Professor of Chemistry and Natural Science ; Car- 
los A. Kenaston, A. M., Professor of Mathematics 



CITY OF RIPON. 255 

and Astronomy; Mrs. Clarissa T. Tracy, Matron 
and Instructor in Botany; Luthera H. Adams, A. 
M., Assistant in Greek and Mathematics; Kate A. 
Bushnell, Principal of the Ladies' Department; 
Mrs. William M. Bristoll, B. S., Assistant in Latin ; 
John C. Fillmore, A. M., Professor of Music; 
Camilla M. Nettleton, Instructor in Vocal Culture, 
and Assistant Instructor in Piano Playing and 
Harmony. 

Penmanship and Drawing are taught by extra 
teachers. 

Prof. Bristoll, Registrar and Assistant Treasurer ; 
Prof. Geery, Secretary of the Faculty and Libra- 
rian. 

SUMMARY OF STUDENTS FOR 1871-72. 





t 
i 


Course. Course. 


Genfmen. Ladies. 


Total. 


Graduates o: 


E 187! 


2, 3 4 


4 


3 


7 


Seniors, 




5 11 


11 


5 


16 


Juniors, 




2 8 


6 


4 


10 


Sophomores, 




10 10 


14 


6 


20 


Freshmen, 




0-20 9- 


42 6 


3 


9 


In select studies, 




4 


3 


7-69 


Praparatory 


Students, 


147 


118 


265 


Students in 


Music 


only, 


1 


36 


37 



193 178 371 



256 HISTORY OF THE 

COURSES OF INSTRUCTION. 

Classical Course. College Department. Scientific Course. 

FRESHMAN YEAR. 

First Term — Greek, Xenophon's Memorabilia ; 
Latin, Virgil; Anglo Saxon, Corson; Mathematics, 
Algebra finished ; Elocution, Mitchell. 

Second Term — Latin, Livy ; Greek, Iliad ; Latin, 
Virgil; Astronomy, Burritt; Mathematics, Geom- 
etry begun ; Elocution, Mitchell. 

Third Term— Latin, Horace; Latin, De Senec- 
tute; Natural Science, Botany, Wood; Mathe- 
matics, Geometry finished; Elocution, Mitchell. 

Essays and Declamations throughout the year ; 
also Latin and Greek Prose Composition. 

SOPHOMORE YEAR. 

First Term -Greek, Thucydides; Natural Sci- 
ence, Zoology ; English Literature ; Mathematics, 
Trigonometry ; Elocution, Mitchell. 

Second Term — Greek, Tragedy ; Latin, Xivy, 
Prose Composition ; English Literature ; Mathe- 
matics, Conic Sections and Analytical Geometry. 

Third Term — Greek, Demosthenes on the Crown ; 
Latin, Horace, Prose Composition ; Rhetoric, Art 
of Discourse, Day ; Mathematics, Surveying and 
Mensuration. 

Declamations and Orations throughout the year; 



CITY OF RIPON. 25? 

also Smith's Greece with Lectures in the Classical 
Course. 

JUNIOR YEAR. 

First Term — Modern Languages, French or Ger- 
man ; Natural Science, Inorganic Chemistry ; Math- 
ematics, Mechanics, Snell's Olmsted. 

Second Term — Greek, Plato ; Language, French 
or German ; Natural Science, Inorganic Chemis- 
try, 'Organic Chemistry; Physics, Snell's Olmsted. 

Third Term — Latin, Cicero's Philosophical 
Works; Language, Fieuch or German; Natural 
Science, Mineralogy, Geology ; Astronomy, Snell's 
Olmsted. 

Orations and Forensic Discussions throughout 
the year. 

SENIOR YEAR. 

First Term — Mental Philosophy, Porter; Logic, 
Fowler's Inductive Logic, Lectures; Natural The- 
ology, Butler's Analogy. Orations and Extem- 
pore Discussions. 

Second Term— Mental Philosophy, Porter; Po- 
litical Philosophy, Constitution of the United 
States, International Law, Woolsey, Political 
Economy, Mill ; Higher Physiology, Lectures. 
Orations and Extempore Discussions. 

Third Term — Moral Philosophy, Fairchild ; 



258 HISTORY »0F THE 



^Esthetics, Bascorn ; Evidences of Christianity, 
Hopkins ; History, Lectures on the Philosophy of 
History. 

NORMAL COURSE FIRST YEAR. 

First Term — Latin, as in Senior Preparatory 
Year, Sc., Natural Science, Physiology ; Mathe- 
matics, Higher Algebia. 

Second Term — Latin, as in Senior Preparatory 
Year, Sc; Natural Science, Physical Geography; 
Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 

Third Term- -Latin, as in Senior Preparatory 
Year, Sc ; Natural Science, Botany, Wood ; Rhet- 
oric, Hart 

Essays and Declamations throughout the year. 

SECOND YEAR 

First Term — Language, Latin as in Freshman 
Year, Sc, French or German ; Natural Science, 
Zoology ; Mathematics, Algebra finished ; Elocu- 
tion, Mitchell. 

Second Term— Language, Latin as in Freshman 
Year, Sc, French or German ; Astronomy, Bur- 
ritt ; Mathematics, Geometry begun ; Elocution, 
Mitchell. 

Third Term — Language, Latin as in Freshman 
Year, Sc, French or German; Rhetoric, Art of 
Discourse, Day ; Mathematics, Geometry finished ; 
Elocution, Mitchell. 



CITY OF RIPON. 2£9 

Essays and Declamations throughout the year. 

THIRD YEAR. 

First Term— Mental Philosophy, Porter ; Logic, 
Fowler's Inductive Logic, Lectures ; Natural Sci- 
ence, Inorganic Chemistry. Orations and Extem- 
pore Discussions. 

Second Term — Mental Philosophy, Porter; Polit- 
ical Philosophy, Political Economy, Mill ; Natural 
Science, Inorganic Chemistry , Organic Chemistry : 
Higher Physiology, Lectures. Orations and 
Extempore Discussions. 

Third Year — Moral Philosophy, Fairchild ; /Es- 
thetics, Bascom ; Evidences of Christianity, Hop- 
kins; Natural Science, Mineralogy, Geology; His- 
tory, Lectures on the Philosophy of History. 

classical course. Preparatory Department, scientific course. 

.rPINTOR PREPARATORY YEAR. 

First Term- Latin, Readei, Grammar, Prose 
Composition ; History of Rome, Smith ; Mathe- 
matics, Arithmetic finished; History of the United 
States, Scott. 

Second Term -Latin, Reader, Grammar, Prose 
Composition; Science of Accounts, Bryant and 
Stratton ; English Grammar, Analysis. 

Third Term — Latin, Reader, Grammar, Prose 



260 H1STOEY OF THE 

Composition ; Mathematics, Elementary Algebra ; 
Elementary Physics, Cooley. 

MIDDLE PREPARATORY YEAR. 

Fit st Term — Latin, Caesar ; Greek, Grammar, 
Lessons : Natural Science, Physiology. 

Second Term- Latin, Cicero's Orations ; Greek, 
Grammar, Lessons; Natural Science, Physical 
Geography. 

Third Term — Latin, Cicero's Orations ; Greek, 
Grammar, Lessons, Reader; History, Student's 
Hume. 

Latin Prose Composition throughout the year. 

SENIOR PREPARATORY YEAR. 

First Term — Latin, Virgil; Greek, Reader, Tes- 
tament ; Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 

Second lerm — Latin, Virgil ; Greek, Reader, 
Testament; Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 

Third Term — Latin, DeSenectute; Greek, Reader, 
Testament; Rhetoric, Hart. 

Latin and Greek Prose Compositions throughout 
the year. 

SENIOR PREPARATORY YEAR 

First lerm — Latin, Caesar ; Natural Science, 
Physiology; Mathematics, Higher Algebra. 

Second lerm — Latin, Cicero's Orations; Natural 



CITY OF R1P0N. 261 

Science, Physical Geography ; Mathematics, Higher 
Algebra. 

Ihird Term — Latin, Cicero's Orations ; Rhetoric, 
Hart; History, Student's Hume. 

Latin Prose Composition throughout the year. 

NORMAL COURSE PREPARATORY YEAR. 

Same as in the Junior Preparatory Year of the 
two degree courses. 

Robinson's Mathematical Series, Harkness' and 
Chase and Stuart's Latin Series, Hutchison's Physi- 
ology, Warren's Physical Geography, Youman's 
New Chemistry, and Dana's Geology, in addition 
to those specified in the courses, arc authorized 
text-books of the College. 

Essays and Declamations throughout each Pre- 
paratory Course. 

Note — It will be observed that the Classical, 
Scientific, and Normal Preparatory Courses are 
respectively of three, two, and one years duration. 

DESIGN AND CHARACTER OP THE COLLEGE 

It is the aim of this institution to furnish young 
men and women with a thorough mental and moral 
training. Instuction will be conducted on Christian 
principles, and it will be the aim of the instructors 
to have it pervaded with a strong and healthy 
religious influence. Education will be directed 



262 HISTORY OF THE 

with special reference to health, self-control, Chris- 
tian character and usefulness in life. 

Two liberal courses of study — the Classic and 
the Scientific — have been arranged, each extending 
over four years. The Normal Course is designed, 
not only for those who intend to teach, but also 
for those whose time and means do not allow them 
to get a liberal education. 

The courses of study are open to students of 
both sexes. Ladies reside with the lady teachers 
in a separate building ; but students of both sexes 
are instructed in the same classes, enjoy the same 
privileges, and may take the same degrees. 

LECTURES. 

Lectures will be given on Physiology, Chemistry, 
Mental ano! Moral Science, Logic and History. 
There will also be one lecture a week, throughout 
the year, on subjects of practical information to 
students. 

EXAMINATIONS, DEGREES AND CERTIFICATES. 

At the close of each term, each class in the 
College Department, is subjected to a thorough 
examination upon the studies of the term, In the 
Preparatory deparment, monthly examinations are 
held. The degree of Batchelor of Arts is conferred 
on those who have completed the Classical Course, 



CITY OF RIPON. 263 

and the degree of Bachelor of Science upon those 
who have completed the Scientific. Graduates of 
the Classical Course, of three years standing, and 
of the Scientific Course of four years standing, 
who have been engaged in any literary or profes- 
sional pursuit, and have sustained a good moral 
character, may, on application, receive the degree 
of Master of Arts. Students who complete the 
Normal Course, receive a certificate, but no diploma 
or degree. They take no part in the exercises* of 
Commencement day, but their names are publicly 
announced by the President on that occasion. 

LIBRARY, CABINET AND APPARATUS. 

The College Library contains over three thous- 
and volumes, and is constantly increasing. The 
Cabinet is furnished with a valuable collection of 
Minerals, which has now been permanently located 
and arranged. The Chemical Department is pro- 
vided with Laboratory and Lecture Room, and 
there is considerable apparatus for the illustration 
of the other Physical Sciences. 

LITERARY SOCIETIES. 

The three Literary Societies — the Ecolian, Her 
mean and Lincolnian — afford their members abun 
dant means of voluntary improvement. These 
societies have each a well furnished hall. 



264 HISTORY OF THE 

THE JAMES FUND. 

For the Encouragement of English Composition. 

The interest of a fund of $1,000, given by Mrs. 
John W. James, of Boston, for this special purpose, 
will be annually appropriated, by the direction of 
the faculty, to the four students in College classes, 
who during the year, have made most improvement 
in English Composition. 

REGULATIONS. 

The regulations of the College are few and sim- 
ple, and designed to cultivate manliness and self- 
respect, by placing the students largely upon his 
honor and personal responsibility. Students attend 
public worship in some church regularly twice on 
the Sabbath. Puuctual attendance on all prescribed 
exercises, and cheerful observance of the rales are 
required. Study hours must be spent in study. 
Students are expected to be exemplary in morals 
and manners. None but those who earnestly desire 
improvement are wanted here, and such as continue 
to be disorderly or idle cannot be allowed to 
remain. Students will be admitted at any time, 
but it is very important that they should enter 
promptly at the beginning of the term, and remain 
until the close of examinations. Excuses from 
recitations will not be given except for sickness or 



CITY OF RIPON. 265 

unusual causes. Unless it is strictly necessary, 
students will not be allowed to make visits home 
or ele where, if their absence would include the 
time of recitation. Even when no recitation is 
lost, such visits are highly detrimental to a student's 
progress, and should be discouraged. Parents are 
requested to make their arrangements accordingly. 
No student is permitted to visit the room of a 
student of the other sex, except by special per- 
mission in case of severe sickness. 

The College Registrar will send to parents or 
guardians a monthly report of the scholarship and 
deportment of each student in the Preparatory 
Department. 

EXPENSES, 

Tuition in any College Studies, $8.00 a Term. 
Tuition in Preparatory Studies, 7.00 " 
Drawing, - : 3.00 " 

Room Rent, - 3.00 " 

Incidentals, - - 2.00 " 

Board in the Hall with Teachers, 2. 50 a week. 
There are no extra charges. French and Ger- 
man are included in the above. Instruction in 
vocal music is free. Washing is done at very low 
rates. Students furnish their own fire and lights. 
All charges payable in advance. 
34 



266 HISTORY OF THE 

About two hundred students may have rooms 
and board in the College Buildings. Several of 
the teachers reside there and board at the same 
table with the students. The middle building is 
exclusively for ladies. Board may be had in pri- 
vate families at reasoable rates. 

MANUAL LABOE. 

Young ladies who wish, may assist in the domes- 
tic department, and thus pay in part for their 
board. None are required to render any domestic 
service, and none are allowed to work more than 
two hours a day, except in special cases. Those 
who expect such employment, must apply for it 
before coming. Young men who need it, may 
generally find remumerative employment for an 
hour or two a day, but the College does not agree 
to furnish it. Those who are in earnest for an 
education, and have tact in helping themselves, 
need not be deterred for want of means. Those 
who are needy, if they are faithful in working 
with both head and hands, will here receive all 
possible encouragement, and may earn a considera- 
ble part of their support. But parents should 
consider that a good education is always worth 
more than it costs; and that money well expended 
in it is the wisest investment for their children. 



CITY OF RIPON. 267 

Dutiful students should never be required, except 
by necessity, to earn their own support, or any 
considerable part of it, while getting their educa- 
cation. 

OUTFIT. 

The rooms in the College Buildings are furnished 
with stove, bedstead, wash-stand, table, and plain 
chairs. Other furniture — bed, bedding, lamp, cur- 
tains, etc., — is supplied by the student. A carpet, 
even if it be a small one, a table-spread, and every- 
thing that contributes to the comfort and pleasant- 
ness of a room, should be brought, if possible, 
from home. The beneficial influence upon the 
student's manners, of surrounding him in his room 
with all that makes home cheerful and attractive, 
can hardly be over-estimated. Every student 
should be provided with table-napkins, an umbrella, 
overshoes, and plenty of warm underclothing. 

LOCATION AND BUILDINGS. 

Ripon is reached by the Chicago and North- 
western and Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the 
Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railways. It is one 
of the most attractive places in the State The 
scenery is pleasant and the climate healthful. The 
grounds occupied by the institution are beautifully 



268 H1ST0BY OF THE 

located, commanding extensive views of the sur- 
rounding country. The College has three large 
stone buildings, three stories high. These afford 
ample room for the purposes of instruction; also 
for Chapel, Cabinet, Labratory, Library, Literary 
Societies, Reading Room, Boarding Hall ; and resi- 
dence for teachers and students. The buildings 
were thoroughly repaired and renovated one year 
ago, and very great improvements made, especially 
in the ladies' building. 

GKOWTH AND WANTS. 

The progress of the College has been very 
encouraging. All the departments of instruction 
are now well organized and filled with permanent 
instructors. During the past year, besides the 
improvement of the building, valuable additions 
have been made to the'Library and Cabinet. The 
Endowment Subscription has reached nearly 
$45,000, of which about $35,000 is paid in and 
well invested. 

But it is evident that the work of the College, 
important and useful as it is already, is only fairly 
begun. Its usefulness and growth are now limited 
only by want of means adequate to its work. 
Hitherto, with severe economy, and great sacrifice 
from its teachers, it has been sustained almost 



CITY OF RIPON. 269 

wholly on its receipts from tuition. Nothing con- 
tributed to it has been used in current expenses or 
in raising money, and it is not proposed to use 
any gift for these purposes. But the work which 
the College is now doing requires that its endow- 
ment fund should be raised to $100,000. The 
library should be largely increased immediately, 
and there is much need of apparatus, and of addi 
tions to the Cabinet. The friends of the College 
and of liberal education generally, are invited to 
contribute to these objects. Their donations will 
be used most advantageously in the present work 
of instruction, and in building up a strong and 
permanent institution for liberal culture. 

MUSICAL DEPARTMENT. 

The object of this department is to give thor- 
ough instruction in playing the Piano forte, in Solo 
and Chorus Singing, and Harmony and Higher 
Musical Theory, including Counterpoint and the 
elements of Form and Composition. Its instruct- 
ors will also seek to develop in their pupils a 
sound and healthy musical taste. 

The course of study is divided into two parts, 
Preparatory and Advanced. 

PREPARATORY COURSE. 

In this course the student will become familiar 



270 HISTORY OF THE 

with the staff, clefs, notes, rests, dynamic signs, 
and all that belongs to musical notation ; also with 
the different intervals, the major, minor and chro- 
matic scales. They will be exercised thoroughly 
in transposition, and will become familiar with the 
chords of the major and minor scales, so as to be 
able to commence the study of Harmony in the 
Advanced Course with the connection of chords- 
They will also pursue the study of Form suffi- 
ciently to distinguish readily phrases, sections, and 
periods, and to analyze the common Song-forms. 

In Piano-playing they will acquire a good finger 
action, touch, and facility and ease of execution. 
They will also become familiar with the principles 
of fingering as applied to all classes of passages. 
They will devote one lesson a week for three terms 
to the study of church music, using either piano 
or cabinet organ for this purpose. Those whose 
voices admit of training will be required to spend 
at least three full terms in the study of vocal 
culture. 

The following studies belong to this course : 
Plaidy's Technical Studies ; Brunner, Op. 23 ; 
Lemoine, Op. 37 ; Bertini, Op. 100 ; Huenten, 
Op. 80 ; Bertini, Op. 29 and 32 ; Czerny, Op. 636, 
Op. 718, Op. 817 ; Krause, Op. 2; Heller, Op. 47, 



CITY OP RIPON. 271 

and parts of Op. 45 and Op. 46. Compositions : 
Jacob Schmitt, 6 Sonatines, Op. 207 ; Clementi, 
Op. 36, 6 Sonatines; Kuhlau, Op. 55 and Op. 59, 
Sonatines; Schumann's Album, Op. 68; and such 
other selections as may be deemed best adapted to 
promote the musical progress of the pupil. 

In vocal culture Mason's Solfeggios will be used, 
with technical exercises and songs selected from 
the best authors. 

The time occupied with this course will vary 
with the ability and diligence of the pupils, and 
the time they are able to devote to daily study 
and practice. Those who complete this course 
satisfactorily will be admitted to the Advanced 
Course, and will receive a testimonial stating their 
musical attainments in full. 

ADVANCED COURSE. 

The course will comprise two years of practical 
and theoretical instruction. The study of the 
Piano-forte will be continued through the entire 
course, and the study of vocal culture at least one 
year, except in cases where inability to sing ren- 
ders such study impossible. 

The theoretical study will be as follows : First 
year, Harmony and Part writing, Elements of 
Form and Analysis. Second Year, Harmony 



272 HTSTOEY OF THE 

continued, Counterpoint, Analysis, Form and Com- 
position. 

CLASS INSTRUCTION. 

The instruction in Piano-playing and Vocal Cul- 
ture will be given in classes of three, and the theo- 
retical instruction in classes of six pupils each, the 
classes receiving three lessons per week. The class 
system has many advantages over private instruc- 
tion ; it has been thoroughly tested and is used in 
all the Musical Conservatories of Europe and 
America. 

CHORUS SINGING. 

There are two singing classes, free to the pupils 
of all departments of the College. Those who 
are found competent to sing somewhat difficult 
music, will be presented for admission to the Men- 
delssohn Society, a choral society under the direc- 
tion of the Professor of Music of the College, 
whose object is the study and performance of the 
best choral works of the best masters. Pupils are 
required to attend one or moie of these singing- 
classes unless excused. 

ATTENDANCE, &C 

The terms will commence with the regular Col- 
lege terms. The pupils are expected to begin 
promptly with the term and continue to the end, 



CITY OF RTPON. 273 

attending punctually all the lessons, and making 
full use of all the hours assigned for practice. The 
teacher cannot make up lessons lost through ab- 
sence of the pupil, even when such absence was 
excused. Pupils must receive all the lessons in 
each term which the teachers stand prepared to 
give, or bear the loss themselves. Exceptions can 
only be made in cases of several weeks' illness, or 
other equally unavoidable contingencies, in which 
case lessons will be made up, or if that is for any 
reason impossible, a portion of the tuition will be 
refunded. 

TUITION AND OTHER EXPENSES. 

All bills for tuition, piano rent, etc., are due in 
advance. No deduction is made for temporary 
absence, except in case of several weeks' illness. 

Music can be obtained at twenty-five per cent, 
discount from retail prices. Pianos can be rented 
at from three to four dollars per quarter, one hour 
a day. 

Board may be had in the college at $2.50 a 
week; or in private families at very reasonable 
rates. The following are the rates of tuition : 

Piano, or vocal culture, in classes, term of 14 weeks, $14 00 

« u « .« 13 « . 13 q 

" " " " 12 " - 12 00 

Theory, half the above rates. Private lessons $1.00 per hour. 
35 



274 HISTORY OF THE 

Applications for admission to the Musical De- 
partment, or for further information should be 
addressed to John C Fillmore, Professor of Music. 

Application for admission to the Ladies' De- 
partment, should be made to Miss Kate A. Bush- 
nell, Principle. 

Other applications may be made to the Secretary 
of the faculty, or to Prest. W. E. Merriman. 

ALUMNI OF THE COLLEGE. 

Class 0/1867— Lufchera H. Adam^, B. A. (M. A., 
1870), Teacher, Ripon; Harriet H. Brown, B. S., 
Teacher, Fond duLac; Mary F. Spencer (Thayer), 

B. S., Missionary, Aintab, Syria; Susan A W. 
Salisbury, B. S., died at sea, October, 1871 ; 4. 

Class of 1868 — A. Jerome Chittenden, Theo- 
logical Student, Andover, Mass.; Emily S. Cook, 
Government Clerk, White Earth, Minn.; George 

C. Duffie, B. A., Editor, Ripon ; Lyman B. Ever- 
dell, B. A., Teacher ; Myron W. Pinkerton, B. A. 
(B. D., Chicago Theological Seminary, 1871 ; Rev., 
1871), Missionary, Umtwalumi, South Africa; 
J. Horace Tracy, B. A. (M. D., University of the 
City of New York, 1870), Physician, Fond du 
Lac; 6. 

Class of 1869— Caroline D. Chittenden, B. S., 
Teacher, Brooklyn, New York ; Isabella S. Cragin, 



CITY OF RIPON. 275 

B. S., Teacher, Brooklyn, New York ; Greorge M. 
Steele, B. S. (M. D., College Physicians and Sur" 
geons, 1871), Physician, Oshkosh ; 3. 

Class of 1870 — Daniel De Loss Bathrick, B. S, 
Clerk, Chicago, Illinois; Josiah B. Blakely, B. A., 
Clergyman, Neenah; Eunice E. Durand, B. S., 
Teacher, Chester Cross Roads, Ohio; William Syl- 
vester Holt, Missionary, China; Ella E. Mapes, 
B.S.,Ripon; RosaE. Olds (Bristoll), B. S., Teacher, 
Ripon ; Annah M. Smith, B. 8., Teacher, Ply- 
mouth; 7. 

Class of 1871 — Jas A. Blanchard, B. A., Lawyer, 
New York City; James H. Bradish, B. A., Law- 
yer, New York City; Joseph B. Da vies, B. S., 
Teacher, Fox Lake ; John T. Evans, B. A., Chem- 
ist, California ; Moritz E. Eversz, B. A, Theological 
Student, Oberlin, Ohio ; Sarah E. Powers, B. A., 
London, England; Albert F. Rust, B. A., Clerk, 
Fond du Lac ; Charles H. Yeomans, B. A., Lawyer, 
Onargo, Illinois ; 8. 

Class of 1872— John W. Allen, Jr., B. A, Civil 
Engineer, Ripon ; James M. Brush, B. A., Teacher, 
Brush ville; Frank I. Fisher, B. A., Law Student, 
Chicago, Illinois; Sarah E. Scribner, B. S., Teacher, 
Ripon ; Martha A. Shepard, B. S., Teacher, Man- 
kato, Minnesota; Margaret B. Shoemaker, B. S., 



276 HISTORY OF THE 

Teacher, Grand Rapids; Harmon M. Wilcox, B. S., 
Teacher, Sioux City, Iowa; 7. 

Class of 1873— Henry S. Akin, B. A., Ripon; 
Horatio A. Brooks, B. S., Dartford ; Sarah F. 
Combs, B. S., Ripon ; Rowland S. Cross, B. A., 
Bloomer ; Ida Elwell, B. S., West Salem ; William 
Foulkes, B. A., Oshkosh ; Oscar E. Hanson, B. S., 
Nebraska ; Marietta Hunter, B. S., Welaunee ; 
Harriet A. Johnson, B. S., Fond du Lac ; Henry 
B. Miter, B. A., Beaver Dam; Charles M. Pond, 
B. S., Brandon; Jesse F. Taintor, B. A., Mil- 
waukee; 12. 



CITY OF R1PON. 277 



DEDICATION. 

To you whose names are hereunto set, I dedicate 
this book. You who have so kindly lent me the 
aid to publish it, by giving me your names before 
you saw the work, I shall hold in grateful remem- 
brance, and shall teach my children after me to 
cherish your memory. It has been through such 
continued encouragement and applause that we have 
built up so beautiful a city as your Ripon. Keep 
her as she is — the pattern little city of the West. 
Keep up all her institutions, and add to her as 
you shall see, in her future, what she may need. 
And if, when the opportunity presents itself, you 
neglect to do your duty to yourselves and to pos- 
terity, to God and to your country, I shall have 
one consolation left — that while I was with you, 
I labored with a healthy and sanguine constitution 
to bring about your present prosperity. But if 
you neglect to do all this, and I live, I shall often 
remind you of your duty. If not, let this do it 

when I am gone. 

DAVID P. MAPES. 



278 



HISTORY OF THE 



COPIES. 

David Greeuway, 3 

J. B. Barlow, 2 

J. B. Morey, 2 

John Haas, 1 

G. L. Field, 1 

E. Manville, 1 

E. P. Brockway, 2 

S. L. Whitney, 1 

Dan Furnace, 1 

E. B Soule, 1 

J. B. Vliet, 1 

J. H. Brooks, 1 

F. Richmuth, 1 

A. S. Jelliff, 1 

Charles Combs, 1 

George Goodfellow, 1 

L. M. Carlile, 1 

W. T. Iris, 1 

James Stevens, 1 

Dan Cross, 1 

Albert Walker, 1 

Captain Marshall, 1 

H. Bryyer, 1 

Robert Mason, 1 

Captain Blacker, 1 

Albert Rolfe, 1 

Hiram Turner, 1 

L. Allen, 1 

Wm. Trainor, 1 

H. Dugnen, 1 



COPIES. 

A. M. Skeils, 2 

Samuel Salsbury, 1 

S. Wood, 1 

John Kingsbury, 1 

Julian Rivers, 1 

A. E. Bovay, 5 

Josiah Rogers, 1 

J. M. Dakin, 1 

C. B. Heart, 1 

C. Taylor, .1 

Deacon Mills, 1 

C. B. Seward, 1 

L. Graf, 1 

Wm. Bayley, 1 

Almon Osborn, 1 

Anson Kellogg, 1 

P. M. Potter, 1 

Charles Rice, 1 

P. C. Brown 1 

Frank Corlis, 1 

A. Bishop, 1 

Steven Brown, 1 

Norman Miller, 2 

Jacob Wooruff, 1 

Volney C. Mason, 1 

Joseph Kingsbury, 1 

H. Leach, 1 

George Riggs, 1 

I. Hoosen, 1 

O. R. Borloom, 1 



CITY OF RtPON. 



279 



COPIES. 

H. Dodge, 1 

Albert Long, 1 

Timothy Hays, 1 

C. Clyford, 1 

George E. Bushnell, 1 

Zobel Brothers, 1 

Levi Morton, 1 

W. O. Hargrave, 1 

Edward Martell, 1 

P. Burk, 1 

S. A. Coe, 1 

J. Corbit, 1 

John Taylor, 1 

James Meigher, . . ' 1 

J. Tombs, 1 

James Knight, 1 

Peter Lambert, 1 

Charles Lawson, 1 

William Starr, 1 

A. Whitmore, 1 

Daniel Eggleston, 1 

F. Nohl, Sen., 1 

Wm. Simpson, 1 

Mrs. Peck, 1 

Wm. E. Merriman, 1 

A. C. Nye, 1 

B. F. Beebe, per Mitchell, . 1 

Emery Lawson, 1 

Jacob Carter, 1 

Asa Hill, 1 



COPIES. 

Ed. Reynols, 1 

Rud Clark, 1 

J. E. Mason, 1 

Armin Pickett, 1 

M. Weisgaber, 1 

J. Wheeler, 1 

Andrew Wilson, 1 

Robert Shelden, 1 

John Tygart, 1 

S. W. Dodge, ^ 

Fred England, 1 

D. E. Haywood, 1 

Frank Grant, 1 

Ingersoll, 1 

Wm. H. Folsom, 1 

C. R. Hamlin, 1 

Thos. Ford, 1 

Gaylord & Sons, 1 

G. Stocking, 1 

W. H. Dakin, 2 

A. T. Glaze, 1 

O. I. Wolcott, 1 

David Fowler, 1 

Wm. Mason, 1 

A. A. Loper, 1 

A. C. Gibbs, 1 

C. F. Hammond, 1 

M. H. Powers, 1 

Mr. Allen, per son, 1 

Ezekiel Babcock, ........ 1 



280 



HISTORY OF THE 



COPIES. 

Arthur Wilson, 1 

Baldwin, 1 

G. H. Light, 1 

Sanford Erye, 1 

J. C. Oakes, 1 

Joseph Shiker, 1 

E. L. Northrop, 2 

B. H. Phelps, 1 

Frank Horner, 1 

Sfterlee Clark, 1 

H. Town, 1 

D. Hunter, 1 

Hayen Hill, 1 

F. Lulke, 1 

C. Pinney, 1 

A. W. Pettibone, 1 

Norman Mason, 1 

Samuel Sumner, 1 

H. C. Bateman, 1 

C. Dunham, 1 

Levi Blossom, 1 

D. R. Bean, 1 

James Clancey, 1 

F. McArthur, 1 

C. & S. Knapp, 1 

Ned Stollard, 1 

Doctor Robinson, 1 

John McCabe, 1 

Mich. Lynan, 1 

G. W. Trask, 1 



COPIES 

J. N. Foster, 1 

O. R. Ellis, 1 

Henry Pritchett, 1 

Elder Sabin, 1 

J. B. Shaw, 1 

Wm. Salsbury, 1 

Jehdeiah Bowen, 5 v- 

Delano & Cooley, 1 

Samuel McAssey, 1 

George W. Mitchell, 1 

J. W. Walcott, 1 

D. W. Akin, W 

L. Nohl, 1 

Byron Kingsbury, 1 

C. Wheeler, 1 

0. Parker, 1 

E. P. West, 2 

H. Wolcott, 1 

D. P. Impson, 1 

G. N. Barnum, 1 

W. W. Robinson, lvX 

John Scott, 1 

H. T. Hinton, 1 

A. Foot, 1 

W. Hargrave, 1 

Thos. McConnell 1 

Richard Harris, 1 

Theodore Neilson, 1 

Doctor Eggleston, 1 

John White, 1 



CITY OF RIPON. 



281 



Spencer "Whiting, 
C. Faustman,. . . . 
Joseph Hanley, . . 
Gabriel Bouck, . . 



.... 1 

.... 1 

.... 1 

... 1 

E. M. Hearney, 1 

H. Crosswell 1 

R. McDonald, 1 

Jackson Walker, 1 

J. Dobbs, 5 

Jacob Enos, 1 

Ed. Wilson, 1 

J. Lockwood, 1 

Hawley, 1 

Thos. Harris, 1 

Atkins, Steele & White, ... 1 

O. P. Reed, 1 

Marcellus Pedrick, 1 

W. Wardwell, 1 

Scott McDole, 1 

D. I. Turner, 1 

Alpeus Tucker, 1 

George L. Marsall, 1 

C. A. Sweete, 1 

Alex. Martin, 1 

D. L. Harkness, 1 



J. W. Edwards, 1 

Deacon Brown, 1 

C. T. Shephard, 1 

Rev. G. W. Matthews, .... 1 

Ed. Smith, 1 

James Thomas, 1 

W. T. Whiting, 1 

Jason C. Russell, 1 

Caleb Shephard, 1 

Doctor Barnes, 1 

Richard Catlin, 1 

C. Bennett, 1 

C. F. Dodge, 1 

A. B. Coe, , 1 

J. D. Rush, 1 

John B. Martin, 1 

I. Men-ills, 1 

Adolphus King, 1 

J. C. Cooper, 1 

J. Sechnell, 1 

Wm. Catin, 1 

R. C. Kelley, 1 

J. Thacher, 1 

Eben Basstt, 1 



H 60-79 • 



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